Department for Transport

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2016 to Question 36401, whether the Cabinet Secretary's involvement in the Infrastructure and Projects Authority's review of High Speed 2 was requested or authorised by a Minister; and what the membership is of the small cross-government team referred to in that Answer.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s (IPA’s) support to the HS2 Programme is part of the normal assurance process for projects of this size, as mandated by Ministers. The Cabinet Secretary’s involvement is also normal for projects on the scale of HS2. The IPA’s role on the Government's Major Projects Portfolio is to provide expertise in infrastructure and the financing, delivery and assurance of major projects, to support more effective management and delivery across government. The cross government assurance involves relevant experts from the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, the Department for Transport, HM Treasury and HS2 Ltd.

Railways: Franchises

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23836, on railways: franchises, on which franchises the partnership referred to in that Answer has provided advice to him in relation to his duties under Section 30 of the Railways Act 1993; and whether his Department has carried out mobilisation work on any franchises under Section 30 since the contract referred to in that Answer was signed.

Claire Perry: The partnership are contracted to provide advice to the Department on all rail franchises in relation to the Secretary of State’s duties under Section 30 of the Railways Act 1993. The partnership is also currently advising the Department on a mobilisation plan for the Cross Country franchise. This plan is being prepared on a contingency basis which will be implemented in the event that negotiations on a Direct Award to the current operator fail to reach a successful commercial conclusion.

East Coast Railway Line: WiFi

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the InterCity  East Coast franchisee expects to introduce free WiFi for standard class passengers on trains on routes under that franchise.

Claire Perry: Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) currently provide free wifi to Standard Class passengers for at least the first 15 minutes of use. They also provide free wifi to Standard Anytime ticket holders who have purchased their tickets through corporate sales channels. By end of October 2016, VTEC will provide free wifi to all customers who book through the Franchise Operator's website. VTEC are currently in negotiations with suppliers to provide free wifi by end of 2016 at all VTEC managed stations.

East Coast Railway Line: Franchises

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what premium payments were made by the InterCity East Coast franchisee to his Department in 2015-16.

Claire Perry: The final number for 2015/16 is yet to be audited. The official number is due to be published by the Office of Rail and Road on 25th August 2016.

High Speed 2 Railway Line: Coventry

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential economic effect of the High Speed 2 project on Coventry; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Robert Goodwill: Much of the research on the impacts of HS2 on specific areas of the UK so far has focussed on the HS2 named cities such as Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and London. However, to build an understanding of the potential for HS2 to contribute to balanced economic growth in the UK, The Economic Case for HS2, published in 2013, apportioned the estimated social benefits of the project to different regions. The West Midlands was estimated to receive 15% of the benefit of the full ‘Y’ network in 2036, valued at £303m (in 2011 prices). Coventry, located close to the planned HS2 Birmingham Interchange station, can be expected to benefit from faster journey times through the high speed network as well as released capacity on the classic network. Early research published in the HS2 Regional Economic Impacts report in 2013 attempted to estimate the gross GVA effects of HS2 on the West Midlands economy in 2037 and produced an illustrative estimate of between £1.5bn and £3.1bn of additional output per annum (in 2013 prices). We continue to refine the methodology of how we assess regional economic impacts and build evidence on the contribution which HS2 could make to creating sustainable and balanced economic growth.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 3 May 2016 to Question 35371, if he will provide a breakdown of statutory blight regime and HS2 discretionary scheme payments by parliamentary constituency.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The information requested is provided in the attached table. 



036788 - Breakdown in Table
(Excel SpreadSheet, 11.75 KB)

Motor Vehicles: Insurance

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2016 to Question 34946, what the recent meetings held by Ministers and officials of his Department with the motor insurance industry were that were referred to in that Answer and what was discussed at those meetings; and how many meetings he has held with personal injury law firms in the same time period and what was discussed at those meetings.

Andrew Jones: I last met with representatives from across the insurance industry on 14 January to discuss a range of issues. These included young driver safety and technology measures which can reduce the cost of insurance and thus reduce incentives to drive without insurance and the implications of a European Court of Justice Judgment on the scope of compulsory motor insurance. In addition I met with the British Insurance Brokers’ Association last summer, shortly after my appointment. My officials have regular meetings with representatives from the insurance industry. At these a range of issues have been discussed including young driver safety and technology such as telematics, uninsured driving, the scope of compulsory motor insurance, and driverless cars. Representatives of some parts of that industry have raised with us the issue of Insurance Premium Tax; this is a matter for the Chancellor of the Exchequer. There have been no recent meetings with personal injury law firms regarding motor insurance.

Wrecks: Hebrides

Dr Paul Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will suspend the procurement exercise for the recovery of the FV Louisa pending investigation of the tendering process for that recovery.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The fishing vessel Louisa sank off the Scottish coast on 9 April 2016. The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) is seeking to raise the vessel as part of its investigation to establish the causes and circumstances of the accident. The Department’s procurement experts have independently reviewed the processes undertaken by the MAIB in awarding the contract to recover the Louisa. It is clear from that review that the MAIB’s evaluation team followed the process as set out in the tender document and in a fair and transparent manner. I am therefore satisfied that there are no grounds for the procurement process to be suspended. This sinking resulted in the deaths of three fishermen and the vessel should be recovered as soon as possible to give the investigation team the strongest possibility of understanding the reasons why this tragic accident occurred.

Railways: Death

Mr Ronnie Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many fatalities have occurred on the railway network in Great Britain since 2014.

Claire Perry: Rail is a safe mode of travel and the frequency of train accidents involving passenger or workforce fatalities in the UK is at its lowest ever level with 2015-16 being the ninth year in succession without any such fatalities. The following non-crash related fatalities have occurred on the rail network since 2014:  2014/152015/16 (provisional)Passengers36Workforce30Public (non-trespass)128Public (trespass)2530Suicide289252Total332296

Passenger Ships: Norovirus

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had discussions with Fred Olson cruise lines and his US counterparts on the welfare of passengers aboard MV Balmoral who have contracted norovirus; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Robert Goodwill: There have not been any discussions with Fred Olsen cruise lines or the US maritime authorities about welfare of passengers on the MV BALMORAL. This ship is registered with the Bahamas Maritime Authority and in the first instance it is for them as the flag-State and the countries where the ship calls, in this case the USA and Canada as the port-States, to liaise with Fred Olsen cruise lines and the local Port Health Authority.

Heathrow Airport

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2016 to Question 36423, whether the package of measures to mitigate the impact of Heathrow Airport expansion on local communities will relate to new as well as existing schools and hospitals.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The Airports Commission’s recommendations for mitigation included a strong package for schools and community buildings. We are carefully considering the evidence and discussing with promoters to ensure the best possible package of mitigation in this area is delivered.

Climate Change: Airports

Dr Tania Mathias: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change on the potential effect of airport expansion on the UK's climate change goals.

Mr Robert Goodwill: Department for Transport officials are engaging closely with colleagues in the Department for Energy and Climate Change and any decision regarding future airport capacity will take into account the Government’s obligations under the Climate Change Act. On 14 December 2015 the Secretary of State for Transport announced that the Government would undertake a package of further work, including on measures to mitigate carbon impacts and address sustainability concerns, particularly during construction. This further work will conclude by the summer.

Electric Vehicles: Motorcycles

Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many additional electric motorcycles his Department expects to register as a result of the introduction of the motorcycle plug-in scheme.

Andrew Jones: Sales of electric motorcycles in the UK rose by 63% in 2015. The Government remains committed to supporting the zero emission motorcycle industry, we are assessing options to support this growing market and will make an announcement as soon as is practical.

Home Office

Intelligence Services

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Security at the Home Office in the sitting of the Investigatory Powers Bill of 26 April 2016, column 549, PBC (Bill 143) 2015-16, how many details of medical records the security and intelligence services hold; what the definition of medical records was for the purposes of that contribution; and whether the intelligence and security services attain medical records directly from those who hold them.

Mr John Hayes: Holding answer received on 04 May 2016



The Investigatory Powers Bill significantly strengthens the safeguards in relation to the security and intelligence agencies’ retention and use of bulk personal datasets through the requirement for warrants subject to the ‘double-lock’ of Secretary of State and judicial approval.The security and intelligence agencies do not hold medical records as part of their bulk personal datasets. Medical records are a collection of confidential medical information about the mental or physical health of individuals compiled by a medical professional and held by a medical institution.The agencies may only acquire information where it is necessary for the proper discharge of their statutory functions and the retention of each bulk personal dataset is subject to strict handling arrangements to ensure that they are only retained where it is necessary and proportionate to do so.The Government cannot provide further details on the datasets that the agencies hold or how they are acquired as to do so would undermine the agencies’ ability to protect national security and prevent and disrupt serious crime.

National Crime Agency

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, (a) how much funding was allocated to and (b) how many full-time equivalent staff were employed by (i) the National Crime Agency (NCA), (b) the NCA's Economic Crime Command and (c) each sub-unit of the NCA's Economic Crime Command in each financial year between 2012-13 and 2016-17.

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what role the National Crime Agency plays in tackling tax evasion.

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, (a) how much funding was allocated to and (b) how many full-time equivalent staff were employed by (i) the National Crime Agency's Criminal Finances Threat Group and (ii) each of the cash-based money laundering, non cash-based money laundering and professional enablers divisions and the other sub-groups in each year since 2009-10.

Mr John Hayes: The National Crime Agency’s Annual Report and Accounts 2014-15 sets out the Agency’s staffing numbers and funding allocations including gross expenditure for the Economic Crime Command for 2013-14, and 2014-15.The gross expenditure of the Economic Crime Command in 2013/14, the first year of the NCA’s operation, was £10,571,000. In 2014-15 gross expenditure was £21,718,000. In June 2015, the International Corruption Unit was established in the Economic Crime Command. It brought together resources from the Metropolitan Police Service, City of London Police and the NCA into a single unit and is responsible for investigating the bribery of foreign public officials by individuals or companies from the UK, and money laundering by corrupt foreign officials and their associates.The Economic Crime Command also leads the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT) through which the financial sector, law enforcement agencies and the Financial Conduct Authority share information to prevent, detect and disrupt money laundering and terrorist financing. The NCA as a whole has around 4,000 staff. The majority of the NCA’s staff work as a flexible investigative resource, not in a particular Command, but assigned to particular operations across all areas of the NCA as needed. The agency also houses a number of deployable specialist capabilities.The number of staff working in a particular Command is not a reliable indicator of the overall NCA resource linked to a particular type of crime. The Criminal Finances Threat Group is a multi-agency group chaired by the NCA which includes representatives from across law enforcement, meeting quarterly. As the Group is not a unit within the NCA, the information sought is not available. HMRC leads on tax evasion.The NCA works closely with HMRC in relation to tax evasion that relates to serious and organised crime. Through the NCA’s national tasking and coordination mechanisms the Agency is able act on these cases by utilising its specialist capabilities, for example undertaking tax investigations to recover assets from serious and organised criminals under part 6 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Money Laundering

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) professionals, (b) nominated officers and (c) other nominated officers were prosecuted for failure to disclose under sections 330 to 332 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 in each year since 2009-10.

Mr John Hayes: The Government is committed to ensuring that the UK has a robust anti-money laundering regime. The National Risk Assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing was published on 15 October 2015. This identified the threats and vulnerabilities we face in these areas, and the Action Plan for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist finance was published on 21 April 2016, setting out the steps that the Government will take to address them.The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and found guilty at all courts of offences under Sections 330 to 332, listed individually, from 2009/10 to the period between April and December 2014 (latest period available), can be viewed in the table below. It is not possible to determine the occupation of those convicted of these offences. Section of ActOutcome2009/102010/112011/122012/132013/14April to December 2014330Proceeded against-52241Found guilty-41181331Proceeded against----2-Found guilty--1-1-332Proceeded against------Found guilty---1--

Home Office: EU Law

Mrs Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies have spent on infraction proceedings in each of the last 10 years.

James Brokenshire: I refer my Hon. Friend to the answer given by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office (Matthew Hancock) 36288.

National Crime Agency: Databases

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals working for which organisations have received clearance to directly access the database of Suspicious Activity Reports in each year since 2009-10.

Mr John Hayes: The end user organisations (police forces, multi agency teams and other agencies) that have ‘direct’ access to suspicious activity reports (SARs) are listed in the SARs Annual Reports, which are available on the NCA website. They are summarised in the table below.YearNumber of end users organisations that have ‘direct’ access to SARs200978201078201178201277201369201469201571 All individuals outside of the NCA who have ‘direct’ access to SARs are accredited by the NCA Proceeds of Crime Centre as being Financial Investigators, Financial Intelligence Officers or Financial Intelligence Administrators in line with the end user agreements in place with each organisation. Not all those individuals that have accreditation have ‘direct’ access to SARs. It is not possible, without further significant analysis, to determine the number of individuals who over time have had such access to the SARs System.

Detention Centres: Surveillance

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many property interference authorisations were granted to each immigration removal centre inspected by the Office of Surveillance Commissioners in each of the last five years.

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which immigration removal centres were inspected by the Office of Surveillance Commissioners related to the use of property interference by immigration officers in each of the last five years.

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether changes have been made to the immigration rules in the last four years in relation to the use of property interference powers by immigration officers.

James Brokenshire: Holding answer received on 09 May 2016



There has been no change in Immigration Rules in relation to the use of property interference by immigration officers. Part III Sections 55(1) and (2) of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 amended the Police Act 1997 and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) in 2013 to empower officials within the Home Office exercising immigration functions to seek authority for property interference solely for the purpose of preventing and detecting serious crime. Immigration removal centres themselves cannot seek property interference authorisations.The Office of Surveillance Commissioners (OSC) scrutinise every application for property interference made by immigration officers upon authorisation and also retrospectively oversee any use of the power to ensure compliance. The OSC publish an annual report, which refers to the overall use of these powers by public authorities including the Home Office.The Home Office does not provide information on individual Immigration Removal Centres visited by the OSC, or investigations carried out within them.The Investigatory Powers Bill will replace the current oversight regime with a powerful In-vestigatory Powers Commissioner who will have the support, powers, resources and tech-nical expertise to continue to ensure that these powers are being used fully in accordance with the law.

Cybercrime: Publicity

Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 27 April 2016 to Question 34842, how much of the £3.95 million spent on Cyber Streetwise in 2014-15 was spent on (a) media spend and production, (b) PR, partnership and social, (c) research and (d) website; and how much of the £4.1 million spent on Cyber Streetwise in 2015-16 was spent on (i) media spend and production, (ii) PR, partnership and social, (iii) research and (iv) website.

Mr John Hayes: Holding answer received on 09 May 2016



Cyber Streetwise is a cross Government campaign, developed by private and public stakeholder partners and coordinated by the Home Office’s Research, Information and Communications Unit. It is designed to measurably make the UK a safer place to interact and do business online by increasing individual and SME adoption of safe online behaviours.Government experts estimate that a significant proportion of cyber security issues would be avoided by safer online behaviours. Cyber Streetwise supports this by increasing digital confidence by informing people about the key things that keep them safer online. It does this by:• Delivering actionable and positive solution focussed advice on how to be secure.• Creating arresting communications that highlight the consequences and cut through low interest.• Reminding and reinforcing individuals and SMEs of the core protective behaviours at the point of risk/incidence.Currently our prioritised protective behaviours are: using strong passwords made up of three random words; installing security software on all devices; and regularly downloading software updates. Government and Industry experts agree that adopting these 3 behaviours will provide SMEs and individuals with the best protection against cyber-crime.The impact of Cyber Streetwise on behaviours is evaluated via regular quantitative tracking research. Since its launch in January 2014, it is estimated that 2 million adults have adopted safer online behaviours that will better protect them.The spend for Cyber Streetwise in 2014/15 and 2015/16 is as follows:• 2014/15 - £3.95m excl VAT• 2015/16 - £4.1m excl VAT

Civil Nuclear Constabulary

Dr Paul Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish Government plans to deploy armed officers from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary to support territorial police forces and to use the military to backfill such officers in civil nuclear establishments.

Mr John Hayes: The Civil Nuclear Constabulary and territorial police forces offer mutual support through individual agreements. As the Prime Minister said in his statement to the House of Commons on 23 November [23 Nov 2015: Column 1051], plans are in place to enable military personnel to support the Police in the event of major terrorist incidents in the UK. Military personnel will be able to fill a number of operational tasks. For national security reasons, it would not be appropriate for me to comment further on these detailed operational agreements.

Passports

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were on the HM Passport Office stop file on 31 December (a) 2015, (b) 2014, (c) 2013, (d) 2012, (e) 2011, and (f) 2010.

James Brokenshire: The number of stop file entries changes continuously and we do not hold data on volumes of entries for specific days.

Passports: Fraud

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many fraudulently-obtained genuine passports HM Passport Office has detected in each year from 2010 to date.

James Brokenshire: The number of detections over the last 6 years is provided in the table below. This data is drawn from management information and includes the detection of current and expired documents. We are continuing to invest in passport counter fraud techniques. For example, we are in the process on introducing new facial matching technology and new data analytics tools to enhance the security of our processes and support fraud investigations. Financial YearFraudulently Obtained Genuine Document Detections2010/118252011/121,0962012/139562013/141,2232014/155482015/161,013

Passports

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people are currently on the HM Passport Office stop file.

James Brokenshire: Entries are retained on the Her Majesty’s Passport Office Stop File for reasons of public protection and the prevention of crime.Given the nature of the data, it would be inappropriate to disclose the volume of entries.

HM Passport Office: Staff

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff are in the HM Passport Office team which acts as the single point of entry for law enforcement partners.

James Brokenshire: The team has a full time equivalent of 26 members of staff and amongst its responsibilities is to act as the single point of entry to Her Majesty’s Passport Office for law enforcement partners.

Data Protection: ICT

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she expects that the Government's proposed improvements to subject access request IT infrastructure will be completed.

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with which public and private sector stakeholders her Department has (a) engaged and (b) plans to engage in the implementation of the Government's proposed improvements to the SARs IT infrastructure.

Mr John Hayes: The Home Office ran a Call for Information on the operation of the Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) regime between 25 February and 25 March 2015. We received more than 60 responses from a wide range of stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, the financial sector, and the legal and accountancy sectors. Subsequently, further discussions were held with private and public sector bodies through a series of workshops.The Government published the Action Plan for Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist finance on 21 April 2016. The Action Plan sets out the Government’s programme to deliver a significantly improved anti-money laundering regime for the UK. This includes the replacement of the SARs IT infrastructure. A summary of the submissions received following the Call for Information is set out in the Action Plan at Annex B.In the Action Plan, we announced our commitment to develop a stronger public private partnership to tackle money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and as part of that we will engage with public and private stakeholders to develop the replacement.The stakeholders will include law enforcement agencies, government departments, and businesses in the ‘regulated sector’ including banks, the legal and accountancy sectors, and estate agents. We will also include regulatory and supervisory bodies, and public bodies for whom SARs are of value.This engagement will enable us to ensure that the replacement of the SARs IT architecture will deliver significant benefits for all of the sectors involved in the SARs regime. As we set out in the Action Plan, we will reform the SARs regime, making the necessary legislative, operational and technical changes, by October 2018.

Asylum: Children

Mr David Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children have been reunited with their families in the UK in (a) the last five years and (b) the last year under (i) the EU Dublin III Regulations, (ii) part 11 of the UK immigration rules, (iii) other parts of the UK immigration rules and (iv) under exceptional circumstances.

James Brokenshire: It is not possible to provide a full answer to this question. I shall write to the hon. Gentleman on the issues he has raised.

Asylum

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Complex Casework Directorate resources to manage the application for renewal of asylum-related discretionary leave to remain; and what the average time taken is for such application renewals to be processed.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office has an internal target to consider all new Further Leave applications within six months of application. The resources in place in Complex Casework Directorate for Further Leave applications from failed asylum seekers granted Discretionary Leave to Remain is based around meeting this internal target. Our records indicate that the average time taken to decide such applications is 186 days.Note: This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics

Money Laundering: International Cooperation

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which foreign countries made requests to the UK to recover criminal assets they had identified as having been laundered in the UK in each year since 2009; and how much in criminal assets was recovered from the UK for each of those countries in each such year.

Mr John Hayes: The table below shows the countries and territories that have made requests to the UK for assistance in recovering criminal assets. Year ReceivedRequesting Country2010Switzerland2011Egypt Czech Republic2012Switzerland2013Switzerland2014Iran Switzerland Italy2015Switzerland Cyprus Italy Brazil NetherlandsThese figures only show countries where 6 or more requests have been made for restraint or confiscation. This is because disclosure of figures where 5 or fewer requests have been made may lead to the identification of an individual Mutual Legal Assistance request. Please note that these figures are taken from local management information, and have not been quality assured to the level of published National Statistics. As such they should be treated as provisional and therefore subject to change.

Vetting

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers of 1 February 2016 to Questions 23158 and 23749, on vetting, what progress she has made in compiling the data.

Karen Bradley: The relevant data is being finalised and I will write to the Honourable Member shortly with the information requested.

Refugees: Children

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to encourage other countries to accept unaccompanied refugee children in Europe.

James Brokenshire: The government is at the forefront of assisting and protecting vulnerable children, wherever they are. Children in Europe are mostly already able to access support from countries that have similar legal obligations to our own.The UK has been playing its full part in supporting European neighbours to provide support to those who have arrived. We have provided nearly £46 million of funding to the Europe wide response to help the most vulnerable, including children and infants.In addition the £10 million the Department for International Development fund announced on 28 January will support UNHCR, Save the Children and International Rescue Committee to work with host authorities to care and assist unaccompanied or separated children.This is in addition to resettling those from conflict regions through our Syrian Resettlement Programme and Children at Risk Resettlement Scheme. The UK is playing a leading role in the resettlement of the most vulnerable and supports other EU Member States in establishing and developing their resettlement schemes, through bilateral and multinational discussions.

Refugees: Children

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government plans to place unaccompanied refugee children from European countries with foster families or in local authority care homes.

James Brokenshire: As announced on 4 May we will be consulting closely with local authorities to find suitable places within the UK for these children.Local authorities will be required to provide the right support, care and accommodation to meet the child’s specific needs. Statutory agencies at a local level are best placed to understand and meet the needs of all children and will continue to make decisions about the right accommodation and support services for those who are looked after.Unaccompanied children will be eligible for foster care if it is considered that that this placement type will provide appropriate support and best meet their individual needs.The UK has well-established and effective safeguarding procedures to ensure the safety of children who come to the UK.

Deportation: India

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2016 to Question 35127, what the average cost of removing to India a person who had been refused leave to remain by (a) sea and (b) air was in the last year for which figures are available.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office has published information on the average cost of removal but this is not broken down by mode of transport, and to do so would incur disproportionate cost. Further information can be found at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/costs-involved-in-detaining-and-removing-illegal-migrants.

Deportation: India

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2016 to Question 35126, how many people who were refused leave to remain in 2015 were removed to India; and how many such people required a medical escorting contractor.

James Brokenshire: The number of individuals refused leave to remain in 2015 who were removed to India is contained in the following table: Table 1 - Number of individuals refused leave to remain in 2015 and returned to India in the year to 31 December 2015.Removal CategoryIndividuals returned, 2015Enforced Removals114Voluntary Departures1,045  Notes Published Removals data to 31 December 2015 was used to identify those removed. Note that some individuals may have been removed since this date.Voluntary departures consists of Assisted Voluntary Returns, Confirmed Voluntary Departures and Notified Voluntary Departures.  For individuals with more than one removal recorded during the time period, only the most recent removal after refusal has been counted.  Figures represent a count of individuals. Multiple instances for the same individual have been counted once.This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.

Asylum: Children

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking child refugees of each (a) gender and (b) age group who are currently in EU member states.

James Brokenshire: The UK Government does not hold information on the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking child refugees in EU Member States by (a) gender and (b) age group.This is collected by each Member State and compiled by Eurostat. It is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/databaseThe UK Government is currently consulting with France, Italy and Greece to establish how best we can implement the recent Lord Dubs’ amendment to the Immigration Bill. This will include an assessment of numbers and needs of unaccompanied children in these Member States.

Asylum

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has made of the number of people who have had their application for asylum refused but cannot legally be returned to their country of origin.

James Brokenshire: The government expects those who have been refused asylum and who have no lawful basis to remain in the UK to leave at the earliest opportunity. If there is a genuine obstacle that prevents a failed asylum seeker's departure from the UK and they are destitute, they can apply for support under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. As of 31 December 2015, a total of 3,821 failed asylum seekers and their dependants were supported under section 4.

Asylum: Greater London

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers were resident in each London borough in 2015.

James Brokenshire: The table below gives the number of asylum seekers in receipt of Section 95 support in each local authority in London, as at the end of December 2015. The numbers of asylum seekers in receipt of section 95 support, by local authority, are published quarterly by the Home Office in Table as_16_q of the Immigration Statistics release. The latest publication (Immigration Statistics, October to December 2015) is available on the GOV.UK website:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2015/asylum Asylum seekers in receipt of Section 95 support, London local authorities, as at end December 2015Local authorityTotal supported under Section 95, London local authoritiesTotal2,446Barking and Dagenham167Barnet71Bexley30Brent85Bromley18Camden25City of London0Croydon141Ealing135Enfield160Greenwich84Hackney36Hammersmith and Fulham25Haringey126Harrow51Havering57Hillingdon149Hounslow82Islington26Kensington and Chelsea14Kingston upon Thames35Lambeth41Lewisham83Merton29Newham274Redbridge193Richmond upon Thames20Southwark59Sutton11Tower Hamlets17Waltham Forest143Wandsworth24Westminster35Notes:1. These figures are provisional and subject to revision.2. The data include dependants in receipt of support.3. The data excludes unaccompanied asylum seeking children supported by Local Authorities.

Visas: Pakistan

Naz Shah: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visa applications from Pakistan for applicants wishing to visit the UK were (a) made, (b) accepted and (c) refused in (i) 2012, (ii) 2013, (iii) 2014 and (iv) 2015.

James Brokenshire: The number of visitor visa applications received, granted and refused from Pakistani nationals for the years 2012 to 2015 is set out in the table below: Entry clearance visitor visa applications and resolutions (grants, refusals, withdrawn or lapsed)Pakistani nationals   ApplicationsResolvedof whichYear  Granted%Refused%Withdrawn or lapsed201285,50087,17254,76863%32,11537%289201385,74988,90161,57869%27,10230%221201487,54189,70957,11764%32,33236%260201590,06690,41444,98950%45,22250%203Source:Immigration Statistics October - December 2015, Home Office, tables vi_01_q, and corresponding datasets.Notes. Some applications made in a particular year may be resolved (granted, refused, withdrawn or lapsed) in a subsequent year. For this reason the grant and refusal rates are calculated as proportions of the total resolved cases in each year, not the total applications.

Asylum: Finance

Keir Starmer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) single adult males and (b) single adult females were in reciept of support under the provisions of section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 in December 2015.

James Brokenshire: The Home office publishes statistics on those supported under section 4 at the end of each quarter in the quarterly Immigration Statistics release.Of the 3,821 main applicants and dependants that were supported under section 4 as at the end of December 2015, 1,948 were single adults. Where the gender of the main applicant is recorded, 1,544 of these were males and 335 were females.The data relating to single adults is a subset of figures published in Table as_18_q, in volume 4 of the latest Immigration Statistics release, available at:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2015

Offences against Children

Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the (a) extra cost to police forces and (b) extra staff hours in police forces resulting from the change in the level of reported cases of contact child sex offences in the last two years.

Mike Penning: Resourcing is an operational matter for individual Chief Constables. We have prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat in the Strategic Policing Requirement to empower police forces to maximise specialist skills and expertise to prevent offending and resolve cases. This means that police forces must have in place the capabilities they need to protect children from sexual abuse.In 2015/16 the Government provided an additional £10 million to the National Crime Agency to create specialist teams to tackle online child sexual exploitation. We have also made available £1.7 million to fund Operation Hydrant, which coordinates the handling of multiple non-recent child sexual abuse investigations specifically concerning institutions or persons of public prominence, and up to £1.5 million to support regional coordinators and analysts to oversee the implementation of the National Policing Plan for tackling child sexual exploitation.

Police

Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many traffic police officers were employed in each police force area in each of the last five years.

Mike Penning: The number of full time equivalent police officers employed in traffic policing roles as at 31 March in each of the last 5 years is provided in the tables. Officers with multiple responsibilities are recorded under their primary function or role. Data for 31 March 2015 (the latest period for which figures are available) can also be found in the supplementary tables of the July 2015 police workforce statistics publication:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/444537/police-workforce-supptabs-mar15.odsReclassification of roles within a force can lead to fluctuations in the number of officers in a particular role.As HMIC has made clear, there is no simple link between police numbers and crime levels, between numbers and the visibility of police in the community, or between numbers and the quality of service provided.Decisions on the size and composition of the police workforce are operational matters for Chief Officers working with their Police and Crime Commissioners and taking into account local priorities. What matters is how officers are deployed, not how many of them there are.

Bail

Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Justice on the potential implications of the proposals in the Policing and Crime Bill to put a limit of 28 days on pre-charge bail for the resources required for bail extension hearings.

Mike Penning: A full Impact Assessment, setting out the cost across Criminal Justice System of the proposed bail reforms, was drawn up as part of the consultation process in late 2014 and was updated in the light of that consultation in March 2015. The Impact Assessment was updated again and published with the Policing and Crime Bill in February 2016; a copy of the latest version is available online at:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/499365/Impact_Assessment_-_Reform_Pre-Charge_Bail.pdfThe Home Office and the Ministry of Justice have worked together closely in drawing up these proposals; I am of course a Minister in both Departments, and my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Justice is one of the backers of the Policing and Crime Bill.

Asylum: Eritrea

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect of the findings of the Government's Human Rights and Democracy Report 2015, published on 21 April 2016, on her Department's country guidance on people from Eritrea seeking asylum in the UK.

James Brokenshire: We are currently updating our September 2015 country information and guidance on handling asylum claims made by Eritrean nationals.The revised guidance will be based on an assessment of a range of sources including the Foreign Office’s Human Rights and Democracy Report 2015 as well as recent publications by Amnesty International and the findings of a Home Office fact finding mission to Eritrea undertaken in February 2016.

Detainees: Eritrea

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people from Eritrea are currently held in immigration detention centres in the UK.

James Brokenshire: As at 31 December 2015, there were 20 Eritrean nationals in detention in the UK. The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of persons removed or departed voluntarily from the UK within Immigration Statistics. Information on those in detention by nationality is available in the latest release, Immigration Statistics: October to December 2015, table dt_13_q from GOV.UK on the statistics web pages at:https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release

Deportation: Eritrea

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many adults from Eritrea who previously applied for asylum as unaccompanied children were served with removal directions in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015.

James Brokenshire: Our records indicate that fewer than a total of 5 adults from Eritrea who previously applied for asylum as unaccompanied children were served with removal directions from 2013 to 2015.

Asylum: Eritrea

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) translation services and (b) other specialist provisions the Government provides to unaccompanied asylum seeking children from Eritrea.

James Brokenshire: All unaccompanied asylum seeking children, including those from Eritrea, are provided with an interpreter where necessary, access to legal advice, and are referred to the Refugee Council children’s panel.Unaccompanied asylum seeking children are placed in the care of local authority children’s services and have access to the same support as all other looked after children.

Immigration Controls: EU Nationals

Mrs Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people carrying passports from other EU member states were refused entry to the UK in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

James Brokenshire: I refer my Rt. hon. Friend to the answer given to Question 31328.

Borders: Personal Records

Keir Starmer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for how long the Semaphore system was subject to a national power outage between 12 and 17 June 2015.

James Brokenshire: For reasons of national security we do not comment on operational issues relating to border security systems.

Money Laundering

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 4 May 2016 to Question 35786, to which countries mutual legal assistance requests were made in the period from 2009-10 to 2015-16.

James Brokenshire: The countries and territories to which outgoing mutual legal assistance requests were transmitted via the Home Office in the period from 2009-10 to 2015-16 were: AlbaniaEgyptLuxembourgSeychellesAndorraFranceMalaysiaSingaporeAustraliaGermanyMaltaSouth AfricaBahamasGhanaMauritiusSpainBahrainGibraltarMexicoSwitzerlandBangladeshGreeceMoldovaTanzaniaBarbadosGrenadaMonacoThailandBelgiumGuernseyMoroccoThe Netherlands AntillesBelizeHong KongNetherlandsTrinidad and TobagoBermudaIndiaNew ZealandTunisiaBrazilIndonesiaNigeriaTurkeyBritish Virgin IslandsIrelandPakistanUgandaBulgariaIsle of ManPanamaUkraineCanadaIsraelPhilippinesUnited Arab EmiratesCape VerdeItalyPortugalUnited StatesCayman IslandsJamaicaRomaniaVenezuelaChinaJapanRussiaVietnamColombiaJerseyRwandaCosta RicaKenyaSaint Kitts and NevisCyprusLiechtensteinSaint Vincent and The Grenadines Please note that this data is taken from local management information, and as such, should be treated as provisional and therefore subject to change.

Deportation

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2016 to Question 35126, on deportation, how many removals were cancelled after an assessment by a medical escorting officer in 2015.

James Brokenshire: The data requested is not available centrally and is not routinely collected. It could be provided only by examining individual case records, which would result in disproportionate cost.

Immigration Controls

Keir Starmer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people on the Warnings Index her Department knows to have entered the UK since 6 May 2010.

James Brokenshire: It is longstanding policy not to disclose details of records which may be held in relation to individuals’ arrival in the United Kingdom as to do so would not be in the interests of national security.

Immigration Controls

Mrs Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2016 to Question 36490, for what reason information on the number of (a) EU and (b) non-EU nationals refused entry to the UK in each year prior to 2004 is not available.

James Brokenshire: Data on passengers initially refused entry to the UK were not collected by the Home Office prior to 2004.

Borders: Personal Records

Keir Starmer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times the Semaphore eBorders system has been affected by a national power outage since 6 May 2010; and when each of those power outages (a) started and (b) ended.

James Brokenshire: For reasons of national security we do not comment on operational issues relating to border security systems.

Asylum: Finance

Keir Starmer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to publish asylum support statistics by gender as part of the Government's quarterly immigration statistics.

James Brokenshire: The information published in the quarterly Immigration Statistics is kept under review, taking into account the needs of users, burdens on suppliers and producers, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. There are currently no plans to publish data relating to asylum support statistics by gender.Statistics on asylum seekers in receipt of Section 95, Section 4 or Section 98 support are available in Tables as_16_q, as_17_q and as_18_q of the quarterly Immigration Statistics release, available here:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2015

South Yorkshire Police

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of a public inquiry related to the miners' strike and events at Orgreave in 1984.

Mrs Theresa May: I am currently considering a submission from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign containing their extensive and detailed arguments for establishing a public inquiry into the events at Orgreave and will set out the Government’s position in the near future.

Asylum: Finance

Keir Starmer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) single adult men, (b) single adult women, (c) families and (d) single-parent families were in receipt of support under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 at the end of 2015.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office publishes statistics on those supported under section 95, as at the end of each quarter, in the quarterly Immigration Statistics release.Of the 34,363 main applicants that were supported under section 95 as at the end of December 2015, 12,561 were single adults. Where the gender of the main applicant is recorded, 9,987 were males and 2,135 were females.There were 6,456 families supported under section 95 as at the end of December 2015. It is not possible to identify single parent families from the published statistics.The figures provided are published in table as_17_q, in volume 4 of the Immigration Statistics asylum data tables. The data provided by gender are a subset of published figures. The latest release, Immigration Statistics September to December 2015, is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2015

Asylum: Housing

Keir Starmer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to consider the final report of the Home Affairs Committee's planned inquiry into asylum accommodation before she makes her decision on whether to extend Compass asylum accommodation to 2019.

James Brokenshire: The Home Secretary will consider the Home Affairs Committee’s report on their planned inquiry into asylum accommodation when it is published.The timing of any decision to extend the COMPASS contracts is subject to ongoing discussions with providers and is commercially sensitive. In deciding whether to extend the contract the Home Office will take a number of things into account, including the performance of the contracts and the value for money that they offer to the taxpayer.

Borders: Personal Records

Keir Starmer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, who on the Government's warnings index is known to have travelled to which destinations during the Semaphore eBorders system national power outage in June 2015.

James Brokenshire: Home Office systems are used for the purposes of border and national security and the detection and prevention of crime. It is longstanding policy not to discuss the specific data held on these systems, the source of the data or how it is used for national security reasons.

Immigration: Kuwait

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2016 to Question 21679, when her Department's investigations into applications for family reunion from Kuwaiti Bidoon people were initiated; when she expects those investigations to be concluded; whether there is a maximum length of time for which a decision will not be taken on the outstanding applications in that cohort; and if she will make a statement.

James Brokenshire: In 2014, UK Visas & Immigration in Jordan became aware of potential abuse of the Family Reunion route by individuals claiming to be the dependants of someone granted refugee status in the UK as a Kuwaiti Bidoon. Investigations commenced at this time.UK Visas & Immigration has concluded the majority of the applications referenced in the response to Question 21679 and continues to work through those applications that have not yet been concluded.UK Visas & Immigration aims to resolve all applications for UK entry clearance within published customer service standards. Where there is a problem with an individual application or if it is complex, UK Visas & Immigration write to the affected applicant to explain why the application will not be decided within the normal standard. All outstanding applications for UK entry clearance from family members of individuals granted refugee status as a Kuwaiti Bidoon which have not been concluded within published customer service standards are currently being prioritised.

Domestic Violence: Children

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to extend the cross-government definition of domestic violence and abuse to include people under 16 years old.

Karen Bradley: The Government takes domestic violence and abuse extremely seriously and recognises that young people can be victims in both the home and their relationships. In March 2013, the non-statutory definition of domestic violence and abuse was extended to include 16 and 17-year-olds.In doing so the Government hopes to encourage young people to come forward and get the support they need, through a helpline or specialist service. Whilst domestic abuse against under 16s is captured by child abuse and existing child protection systems we continue to keep the non-statutory definition of domestic abuse under constant review.

Homicide: Rwanda

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to protect Rwandans residing in the UK from assassination.

Mr John Hayes: It is long established Home Office policy not to comment upon matters of personal protective security.

Proceeds of Crime

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2016 to Question 36224, on proceeds of crime, how many reporters received no reply within seven working days following the first working day after the report was submitted; and by what statutory authority appropriate consent is given to reporters who do not receive a reply from the National Crime Agency within the seven day limit.

Mr John Hayes: Between October 2011 and September 2015 a total of 61 reporters who requested consent under Part 7 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) received no reply from the NCA within the seven working days (referred to as the notice period in POCA). Where an authorised disclosure is made under section 338 POCA, appropriate consent is afforded to a reporter in cases where no reply is provided by the NCA at the end of the seven day notice period under section 335(3) POCA or in the case where the disclosure is from a nominated officer in the regulated sector, under section 336(3) POCA.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Colombia: Capital Punishment

Christian Matheson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his Colombian counterpart to ensure that the Mothers of Soacha are able to keep their relatives' graves in their current cemetery without incurring financial costs.

Mr Hugo Swire: Any claim in negotiating compensation for the preservation of the graves must be requested directly via the government of Colombia, through the local compensation courts. Her Majesty's Government is unable to interfere directly in this process.

Haiti: Elections

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the UN and the EU on helping the Haitian authorities conclude the second round of a presidential election.

Mr Hugo Swire: Our Ambassador to Haiti and her Embassy team regularly consult the UN, US, Canada and other EU member states with the aim of helping the Haitian authorities to conclude the Presidential election process. The issue is also being discussed by the UN Security Council.

Shipping: Exhaust Emissions

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Department for Transport on the proposal to develop a work plan to define the shipping industry's fair share in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions ahead of the International Maritime Organisation meeting on 18 to 22 April 2016.

James Duddridge: Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials are in regular contact with Department for Transport counterparts who lead for the UK at international negotiations to reduce emissions from the global aviation and shipping sectors. All countries agreed in Paris in December 2015 to limit global temperature increases to well below 2°C, and to pursue efforts towards 1.5°C. International negotiations on how the global shipping sector can contribute to this are at an early, technical stage.

Yemen: Armed Conflict

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent reports he has received on the effect of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas in Yemen.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: We consider a range of information from government sources, foreign governments, the media and international non-governmental organisations regarding reports of potential breaches of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). We regularly raise the importance of compliance with IHL with the Saudi Arabian Government and other members of the military Coalition. We also praise the importance of compliance with IHL with the Houthis.

Nigeria: Christianity

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent reports he has received on the abduction, forced conversion and forced marriage of underage Christian girls in northern Nigeria.

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he is making to the Nigerian government on securing the release of non-Muslim underage girls who have been abducted, forcibly converted and forcibly married in states in the north of that country.

James Duddridge: We have received a number of reports on the abduction, forced conversion and forced marriage of women and girls by Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria. These women and girls reportedly come from both Muslim and Christian communities. Due to the nature of Boko Haram attacks, which often take place in remote areas, it is difficult to obtain precise data on such activities.We welcome the progress made by Nigeria and its neighbours against Boko Haram, including the release of women and children. We regularly raise the issue of abducted women and girls with the Nigerian government at the highest levels, and have stressed the importance of providing appropriate support to those who are rescued.The UK remains fully committed to supporting Nigeria’s efforts to tackle Boko Haram, support those targeted by its indiscriminate campaign of violence, and find those who are missing. We are providing a substantial and increasing package of intelligence, military and development support to Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram.

Ethiopia: Politics and Government

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the implications for his policies are of the 19 January 2016 Motion for a Resolution of the European Parliament on the situation in Ethiopia and the report by UN special rapporteurs of 21 January 2016 on Ethiopia's use of force against Oromo protestors; and if he will make a statement.

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the implications for his policies are of the position of the US State Department on Ethiopia's use of anti-terror legislation to detain politicians and protestors, set out in its press release of 29 April 2016; and if he will make a statement.

James Duddridge: The UK Government is aware of both the European parliament’s Motion for a Resolution on the situation in Ethiopia and the UN special rapporteurs’ report on Ethiopia’s alleged use of force against protestors in Oromia. We remain deeply concerned about the handling of demonstrations in Oromia and the reported deaths of a number of protestors, and have repeatedly made representations to the Ethiopian Government over the ongoing situation in that region. Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for International Development, raised our concerns with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on 21 January, as did I, with the Ethiopian Foreign Minister, Dr Tedros, at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa on 27 January. Our Ambassador also raised the issue with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on 26 April. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and raise our concerns with the Ethiopian government, including on the use of force.We will continue to work with our partners, including the US, in urging the Ethiopian government to use restraint in their handling of the protests in Oromia.

Burundi: Crimes of Violence

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to prevent atrocities, such as the Gatumba massacre, from taking place in Burundi.

James Duddridge: The UK is playing a leading role in trying to build a strong and coherent international response to the crisis in Burundi. I visited Burundi in December 2015 and have consistently urged the Government of Burundi, in the strongest terms, to end the violence and engage in inclusive dialogue. Through the conflict, stability and security fund, we will be increasing our efforts on the ground which will include deploying a Burundi coordinator to Bujumbura.DFID offices in Kigali and Dar Es Salaam have stepped up their analysis and coverage of the crisis to ensure they can respond to an evolving situation and increasing humanitarian assistance as necessary. My Hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development, Nick Hurd MP, has visited the Burundi refugee camps in Tanzania and DFID has provided £14.25 million in Tanzania and £6.9million in Rwanda to support refugees.In March I addressed the UN Security Council and regional leaders of the Great Lakes, highlighting the need for urgent action in Burundi. British Ambassadors and High Commissioners across the region continue to lobby their host Governments on the importance of taking action to resolve the situation in Burundi.

Burundi: Politics and Government

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he plans to formally encourage the Burundian government to play a greater role in the truth and reconciliation process in that country.

James Duddridge: The UK Government believes that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, guided by the Arusha Accord, has an important role in ensuring long-term reconciliation. During my visit to Burundi in December 2015, and through my continued engagement with Burundian Foreign Minister Alain Nyamitwe, I have made clear that only a genuine and inclusive dialogue, based on the respect of the Arusha Accord, will enable the Burundian stakeholders to find a consensual solution to the crisis facing their country, a necessary precondition for a lasting truth and reconciliation process. The continued violence shows that the principles of inclusion set out in the Arusha Accord are needed now more than ever and I continue to urge all in Burundi to uphold themUnder the UK’s Presidency the UN Security Council approved Resolution 2248 which stresses the utmost importance of respecting the letter and the spirit of the Arusha Accord. It calls upon the Government of Burundi to adhere to the rule of law and undertake transparent accountability for acts of violence. These points were reiterated in UN Security Council Resolution 2279, agreed on 1 April.

Burundi: UN Resolutions

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure the enactment of UN Security Council Resolution 2248 on Burundi, passed on 12 November 2015.

James Duddridge: Under the UK’s Presidency the UN Security Council approved Resolution 2248 which provided for the deployment of a UN team to Burundi. We are now working with our partners on the UN Security Council to agree a deployment of UN police to Burundi. The force will be tasked with monitoring the situation, promoting respect for human rights and advancing the rule of law – all with the aim of creating conditions that will allow a political dialogue to go forward. We want the UN police to work closely with the African Union’s deployment of 200 military and human rights observers.

Burundi: Sanctions

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his policy is on the imposition of sanctions on the Burundian government.

James Duddridge: The UK has led efforts to put into place sanctions against four human rights offenders in Burundi . Should Burundi continue to refuse to engage in dialogue and the political and security situation continue to deteriorate, we will push for further international sanctions against those blocking progress towards peace.

Burundi: Politics and Government

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received on progress in the Eastern African mediation process in relation to the crisis in Burundi; and if he will make a statement.

James Duddridge: As I stated in the adjournment debate on Human Rights in Burundi on 5 May 2016, I spoke to former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa on 4 May. We agreed that the only route to a lasting solution lies in an inclusive political process. I gave him the UK's full support in his role as the facilitator of the dialogue established by the East African Community. I am encouraged by indications that talks will begin on 21 May. President Mkapa is using the intervening period to bring more people to the table and to have more bilateral discussions before the talks themselves happen. I will keep the house updated.It is essential that all parties, including those who have now left Burundi, are part of the engagement and peace process. I intend to phone and write to the Burundian Foreign Minister before 21 May to call on the Government of Burundi to come together with all participants and to allow them to come to Arusha so that the talks can commence.

Burundi: Politics and Government

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that Burundi implements the recommendations of the Arusha Accords.

James Duddridge: The continued violence in Burundi shows that the principles of inclusion set out in the Arusha Accords are needed now more than ever and we continue to urge all in Burundi to uphold them.It is essential that the talks on 21 May are based on the Arusha Accord, but, as I stated in the adjournment debate on Human Rights in Burundi on 5 May 2016, there is flexibility about the details of how they take place. The UK will support former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa when he agrees a strategy for the talks.

Rwanda: Constitutions

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received on the change in constitution in Rwanda; and what assessment he has made of whether that change will effect the continued provision of UK diplomatic support to the Rwandan government.

James Duddridge: We believe that changes to a constitution for the benefit of an incumbent risk serious damage to long-term stability. We have expressed this view publically alongside international partners, including through my statement of 21 December following the referendum results.The UK and Rwanda have a deep and longstanding relationship and we follow developments in the country closely. We will continue to raise these issues in our public and private dialogue with the Rwandan government and work to encourage an open civil society that can contribute to a healthy democratic process.

Northern Ireland Office

Northern Ireland Office: Dairy Products

Nick Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what proportion of dairy products procured for her Department was sourced from Northern Irish producers in the latest period for which figures are available.

Mrs Theresa Villiers: Figures which detail the origin of dairy products are not held by my Department.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Tata Steel

Mr Douglas Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether the UK could act unilaterally to take an equity stake greater than 25 per cent in Tata Steel while being a member of the EU.

Anna Soubry: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Students: Loans

Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much was paid in student loans to students from each other EU member state in each of the last five years.

Joseph Johnson: The Student Loans Company (SLC) administers student loans for each of the UK Government Administrations. Statistics showing the number of EU domiciled students receiving student support for Higher Education courses in England are published annually by the SLC in the Statistical First Release (SFR) ‘Student Support for Higher Education in England’.http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/financial-support-awarded/england-higher-education.aspxOverall, £11.0 billion was paid in loans for students on full-time courses through the English student support system in the academic year 2014/15. Of this, around 3% was paid in Tuition Fee Loans for EU domiciled students. A breakdown of these payments by EU country of nationality in each of the last 5 years can be found in the table.The growth in payments over the series largely reflects the increasing proportion of the student population who are drawing the larger fee loans that have been available to students starting courses from September 2012, rather than the number of students.Evidence shows that these students are net contributors to the UK economy. Universities UK estimate that EU students are worth £3.7 billion to the UK economy and support over 34,000 jobs.



Student loans by nationality
(Excel SpreadSheet, 29.5 KB)

Redundancy

Anna Turley: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will bring forward legislative proposals on redundancy to specify that the word establishment applies to a whole business rather than an individual working environment.

Nick Boles: Holding answer received on 04 May 2016



It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Companies: Ownership

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether it is his policy that the proposed public register of beneficial owners of companies will provide details of the names of (a) trust or company service providers and (b) other third parties which incorporated those companies.

Anna Soubry: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Tata Steel

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether the Government is involved in discussions with Tata UK on whether Tata UK plans to reverse the sale of some or all of its UK assets.

Anna Soubry: Holding answer received on 09 May 2016



It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Skills Funding Agency: Contracts

Naz Shah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of how many apprenticeships were lost as a result of the early termination of contracts by the Skills Funding Agency because the provider was at risk of failure in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015.

Nick Boles: The Skills Funding Agency has not estimated the number of apprenticeships that have been lost as a result of early termination of contracts in 2013, 2014 and 2015 because the Skills Funding Agency ensures that an alternative provider is in place to enable apprentices to continue their programme should they choose to do so.

Employment: Telephone Services

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 31 March 2016 to Question 31997, on employment: telephone services, if he will provide that data for financial years (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13 and (d) 2013-14.

Nick Boles: Holding answer received on 11 May 2016



It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Apprentices: Taxation

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 4 May 2016 to Question 36124, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of the apprenticeship levy on apprenticeship completion rates.

Nick Boles: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Apprentices: Taxation

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when officials of his Department last met with representatives of the devolved administrations to discuss (a) how the apprenticeship levy will operate and (b) the proportion of the apprenticeship levy that each of the devolved administrations will receive.

Nick Boles: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Apprentices: Taxation

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the Government's policy is on whether an employer with an annual pay bill of under £3 million will be liable to pay the apprenticeship levy.

Nick Boles: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Universities: Staff

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with higher education institutions about the potential effect of changes in the level of university teaching staff on casual employment contracts on the quality of teaching.

Joseph Johnson: We have had no such direct discussions with higher education institutions. In the 2016 Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) Grant letter we asked HEFCE to look into the two issues of (a) the contractual status of academic staff and (b) teaching intensity/weighted contact hours across different subjects.

Universities: Staff

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many staff were employed on (a) fixed-term and (b) atypical contracts at UK universities in each of the last five years.

Joseph Johnson: The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes statistics on academic staff employed at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The numbers of staff employed on fixed-term and atypical contracts in each of the last five years are presented in the table: Academic Staff on Fixed-Term and Atypical ContractsUK Higher Education InstitutionsAcademic Years 2010/11 to 2014/15Academic YearFixed-term ContractsAtypical Contracts2014/1570,03575,5602013/1469,41575,0402012/1365,99074,0752011/1265,71082,0452010/1160,32078,340Source: HESA Staff Record Note: Figures in the table have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answers of 16 February 2016 to Question 26010 and 11 April 2016 to Question 32109, when he now plans to establish a reading room for hon. Members to access Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership documents.

Anna Soubry: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Students: Grants

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what measures the Government has (a) planned and (b) implemented to monitor the effects of abolishing student maintenance grants on students that the equality impact analysis identified would be disproportionately affected by that policy.

Joseph Johnson: Replacing maintenance grants with loans for new full-time students in 2016/17 will ensure the higher education system remains financially sustainable whilst enabling the sector to make progress in widening participation amongst those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Government will continue to monitor and evaluate a wide range of data and evidence relating to the Higher Education sector. This will include data on application and participation rates from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), as well as take-up and repayment rates of student financial support using Student Loans Company (SLC) data.

Students: Loans

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, from which academic year the Government plans that a Sharia-compliant student loan will be available for Muslim students.

Joseph Johnson: The November 2015 Higher Education Green Paper (Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice) confirms the Government’s intention to introduce, for the first time, a new system of alternative student finance. Subject to Parliament, the Government plans to introduce the system through new primary legislation.

Overseas Trade: Mexico

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps the Government is taking to increase British trade with Mexico.

Anna Soubry: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Universities: Finance

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to reduce the reliance of universities on state funding.

Joseph Johnson: It has not proved possible to respond to my hon. Friend in the time available before Prorogation.

Students: Loans

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether the Government plans to introduce a Sharia-compliant Takaful alternative finance product for students unable to access 24+ Advanced Learning Loans as well as for students undertaking higher education courses.

Joseph Johnson: The November 2015 Higher Education Green Paper (Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice) confirms the Government’s intention to introduce, for the first time, a new system of alternative student finance. Work on the new system is ongoing, and includes careful consideration of where and how alternative student finance can deliver the most benefit for students. Subject to Parliament, the Government plans to introduce the system through new primary legislation.

Comet Group: Insolvency

Ms Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment the Government made of the effectiveness of the insolvency system after the collapse of Comet in 2012; and what steps he has taken to improve that system.

Anna Soubry: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

British Home Stores: Insolvency

Ms Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the oral contribution of the then Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on 20 December 2012, Official Report, column 989, whether he plans to keep the opposition front bench updated on the Insolvency Service's investigation into BHS.

Anna Soubry: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Comet Group: Insolvency

Ms Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the oral contribution of the then Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on 20 December 2012, Official Report, column 989, for what reasons the Insolvency Service's investigation into Comet was not shared with the opposition front bench.

Anna Soubry: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Comet Group: Insolvency

Ms Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the oral contribution of the then Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on 20 December 2012, Official Report, column 989, if he will share the findings of the Insolvency Service's investigation into Comet with the opposition front bench.

Anna Soubry: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: Staff

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise on 9 May 2016, Official Report, column 442, what the addresses are of the 14 locations across which his Department's policy teams are spread.

Joseph Johnson: The addresses of the 14 locations where the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills policy teams are based are:Birmingham  Victoria Square House  Victoria Square  Birmingham B2 4BUBristol 2 Rivergate Bristol BS1 6EHCambridge  Eastbrook House  Shaftsbury Road  Cambridge CB2 8DUCardiff  Companies House  Crown Way  Cardiff CF14 3UZCoventry Cheylesmore House  Quinton Road  Coventry CV1 2WTDarlington Queensway House  West Precinct  Darlington TS23 2NFGateshead St George's House  Kingsway  Gateshead NE11 0NALeeds Alexandra House  Redvers Close  Leeds LS16 6QYLondon1 Victoria Street London SW1H 0ETManchester 3 Piccadilly Gate  Store Street  Manchester M1 2WDNewport Concept House  Cardiff Road Newport NP10 8QQNottingham Apex Court  City Link  Nottingham NG2 4LASheffield 2 St Paul's Place 125 Norfolk Street  Sheffield S1 2FJWarrington/Daresbury  Daresbury Laboratory  Keckwick Lane  Warrington WA4 4AD

Electric Cars

Michelle Donelan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to support the electric car industry.

Anna Soubry: It has not proved possible to respond to my hon Friend in the time available before Prorogation.

Department for International Development

Members: Correspondence

Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, when she plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Aberdeen North of 1 December 2015, on foreign aid.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Department does not have record of receiving a letter from the hon. Member for Aberdeen North dated 1 December 2015. My office has been in contact with the hon. Member’s office to receive a copy of the letter and we will respond in due course.

Mozambique: Overseas Aid

Ms Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, which projects her Department plans to close following its decision to suspend financial aid payments to the government of Mozambique.

Justine Greening: Following confirmation of undisclosed state-guaranteed loans, the UK immediately suspended all direct aid to the Government of Mozambique. This has since been followed by other donors. The UK is working with international partners to assess the implications for programming. The UK’s priority is to continue to support the people of Mozambique to exit poverty and build a more prosperous and secure country.

Ethiopia: Overseas Aid

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, in what ways Government aid to Ethiopia assisted in improving democracy and human rights in that country in 2015-16; and if she will make a statement.

Mr Nick Hurd: A stable, secure and prosperous Ethiopia is critical to millions of poor Ethiopians and the UK’s national interest. UK support to Ethiopia, since 2010, has, for example, helped reduce poverty and child mortality by a quarter. Despite Ethiopia’s remarkable progress against the Millennium Development Goals, we have concerns about their progress on civil and political rights. The UK’s aid relationship with any government is based on an assessment of commitment to our partnership principles, including to human rights and international obligations.DFID has supported Ethiopian civil society organisations to respond to the development priorities of poor people and to hold Government to account. In 2015-16 we have developed the capacity of institutions central to upholding accountability including; the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority, the Office of the Federal Auditor General and the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.

Rwanda: Overseas Aid

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what conditionality in relation to governance and human rights is applied to aid to Rwanda.

Mr Nick Hurd: Decisions on aid to Rwanda are informed by judgements about the Government of Rwanda’s commitment to DFID’s partnership principles, which include respect for political and civil rights. In light of concerns in this area, DFID Ministers have agreed that the UK no longer provides General or Sector Budget Support to the Government of Rwanda. Rather, we direct funding into specific sectors, targeting particular results.

Rwanda: Land

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support issuances of land titles and registration of land in Rwanda.

Mr Nick Hurd: DFID has supported the Government of Rwanda’s Land Tenure Regularisation (LTR) programme since 2009. This ambitious programme is supporting the issuance of a registered land title to every landholder in Rwanda as well as establishing systems for maintenance of those titles to facilitate investment and support women’s rights to land. To date, the programme has delivered 7.1 million registered titles, out of a target of 8 million.

Great Lakes Region: International Assistance

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to encourage other nations to contribute bilateral donations to the Great Lakes regional appeal.

Mr Nick Hurd: The UN regional refugee response covering Burundian refugees is for $314 million (£216 million) and is currently funded at 27%. DFID has contributed £21.15 million to that appeal since April 2015, to support refugees in Tanzania and Rwanda. We are considering further allocations to address the continuing crisis. DFID is also supporting refugees in the DRC and Uganda through existing programmes and the provision of technical advice. DFID is working closely with other donors to the appeal such as the EU and US, as well as UNHCR and NGOs, to highlight priorities and encourage other countries to donate.

Central Africa: Widowed People

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to support widows of genocide and conflict in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mr Nick Hurd: Supporting women and girls, including widows, is a top priority for DFID. In Rwanda, DFID supports the Government’s flagship social protection programme, which provides cash transfers to the poorest households with no labour capacity, including widows and those with disabilities.DFID DRC has committed up to £80 million over five years to promote peace, stability and recovery in eastern DRC. DFID addresses sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) across the DRC, both within and outside conflict zones, through its programmes and by addressing gender inequality. DFID DRC’s Humanitarian Programme is worth £168 million, of which £3.8 million provides direct support to survivors and those at risk of sexual violence.In Burundi, DFID is greatly concerned about the status of women and children in provinces affected by the political unrest. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has reported rape and abuses against women. HMG continues to raise the issue with the Government of Burundi, the UN and international partners.

Burundi: Bilateral Aid

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has to develop a bilateral programme of aid for Burundi similar to programmes for Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mr Nick Hurd: There are no plans for DFID to re-open its bilateral aid programme in Burundi, which closed in 2012 following the 2010 Bilateral Aid Review. However, DFID had continued to provide support to Burundi through Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA), an independent agency promoting trade and regional economic integration, given that this is central to Burundi’s growth and prosperity. DFID has provided £10 million for TMEA work in Burundi since 2012. DFID has also supported Centrally Managed Programmes working in Burundi, covering areas such as food security and livelihoods.The UK is responding to the ongoing political crisis, and was the second largest bilateral donor to the regional refugee appeal in 2015, after the US. £21.15 million was committed by DFID for refugee response in the region, including £14.25 million to support refugees in Tanzania and £6.9 million in Rwanda. Allocations for 2016 are currently being finalised, including for support within Burundi.Additionally, DFID has provided technical support, in the form of secondment of experts, to support and strengthen the capacity of UN agencies working in Burundi. DFID has deployed a humanitarian adviser to the region in support of the response and to monitor funding provided so far. We continue to work closely with the FCO and international partners to monitor the situation.

Developing Countries: Education

Chris Heaton-Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure that the Education cannot wait: the fund for education in emergencies focuses on (a) girls, (b) children with disabilities and (c) other marginalised children.

Mr Nick Hurd: The UK has played a leading role in the development of Education Cannot Wait – a fund for education in emergencies. A key focus for Education Cannot Wait will be on ensuring that marginalised children and young people are able to access a quality education. This includes refugees and internally displaced children, as well as children facing barriers to their education because of their gender, disability or other factors. This focus is reflected in the Fund’s indicative headline results, which commits to providing “Inclusive education [that] reaches the most marginalised children and young people in crises” with a target of “100% of supported education opportunities demonstrate increase in education for girls, disabled and those in remote locations”. The UK will continue to engage closely during Education Cannot Wait’s inception phase, to ensure that this commitment is fully reflected in its final design and results frameworks.

Department for Education

Home Education

Mr Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 16 March 2016 to Question 30801, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to amend section 136 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 to introduce a requirement on local authorities to ensure that home-schooled children are being educated to the same standard as schooled children.

Edward Timpson: The standard to which home schooled children have to be educated is already the same as for those attending school. Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 requires parents to ensure that a child of compulsory school age receives full-time education suitable to the child’s age, ability and aptitudes, either by regular attendance at school, or otherwise. ‘Education otherwise than at school’ includes elective home education, and therefore, although methods may differ, the overall requirement is the same.Section 136 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 deals with the inspection of local authorities by Ofsted and would not be an appropriate method for imposing a new duty on them.

Academies

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department is providing to schools engaging in consultation processes on the Government's policy that all schools should become academies to allow maximum stakeholder participation; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Timpson: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Schools: Admissions

Kelly Tolhurst: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what role local authorities will have in school place planning under the proposals in her Department's White Paper, Educational excellence everywhere, published in March 2016.

Edward Timpson: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Teachers: Training

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the relationship between the degree classifications of trainee teachers with their later performance in a teaching career.

Nick Gibb: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Teachers: Training

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on evidence suggesting a link between the A-level results of trainee teachers and their later performance when in a teaching career.

Nick Gibb: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Office of the Schools Adjudicator: London Oratory School

Clive Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much the Office of the Schools Adjudicator has spent on legal action related to the London Oratory School since 2013; and how much of those costs related to judicial reviews in that period.

Nick Gibb: The Office of The Schools Adjudicator has spent £196,201 on legal action in relation to the London Oratory school since 2013, all of which relates to judicial review.

Department for Education: Freedom of Information

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many responses to freedom of information requests have been reviewed by her Department's special advisers before being issued to the individual or organisation requesting information in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Nick Gibb: Special advisers do not routinely review responses to all FOI requests, nor have figures in relation to this been routinely collected. The information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Department for Education: Hotels

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of hotel bookings her Department made for its (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials in each of the last five years.

Nick Gibb: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Schools: Finance

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 5 May 2016 to Question 36211, whether (a) free and (b) new schools which open in a local education authority area are funded from the same delegated schools budget that existed prior to their opening.

Edward Timpson: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Offences against Children: Merseyside

Conor McGinn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many cases of child abuse and neglect were reported in (a) Merseyside and (b) St Helens in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013, (v) 2014 and (vi) 2015.

Edward Timpson: The information requested is not available. We do not collect the reason for referrals so cannot identify how many of these were due to abuse or neglect.Data on referrals is available by local authority and region in the annual statistical first release ‘Characteristics of children in need’’[1].Once a child has been referred and any relevant assessments have been carried out, we collect information on the primary needs of children in need of children’s social care services. In 2014/15, 66% of children in need in St Helens local authority had a primary need of abuse or neglect.[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-children-in-need

Academies: Merseyside

Conor McGinn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the cost of converting schools into academies in (a) St Helens North constituency and (b) Merseyside.

Edward Timpson: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Class Sizes: Nottinghamshire

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many key stage 1 children in (a) Ashfield and (b) Nottinghamshire were in classes of more than 30 children in the academic year beginning September (i) 2015, (ii) 2014 and (iii) 2013.

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Key Stage 1 children in (a) Ashfield and (b) Nottinghamshire were in classes of more than 35 children in the academic year beginning September (i) 2015, (ii) 2014 and (iii) 2013.

Nick Gibb: Information about the number of pupils in key stage 1 classes with more than 30 pupils is available at school level in the underlying data of the ‘schools, pupils and their characteristics’ statistics[1].Information on class sizes for the academic year beginning September 2015 is not yet available and is due to be released in June 2016.The following table shows the number of pupils in key stage 1 classes with more than 30 pupils in schools in Ashfield constituency and Nottinghamshire local authority for the academic years beginning in September 2013 and 2014. Ashfield ConstituencyNottinghamshire LAJanuary 2014 (academic year beginning September 2013)1571,184January 2015 (academic year beginning September 2014)621,215There were no pupils in key stage 1 classes of more than 35 in either Ashfield or Nottinghamshire in January 2014 or January 2015.[1] Data from January 2014 is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2014 in the file called ‘SFR15_2014_school_level_classes_UD’ within the underlying data download.Data from January 2015 is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2015 in the file called ‘SFR16_2015_Schools_Classes_UD’ within the underlying data download.

Schools: Finance

Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the average cost to the public purse of an additional (a) school place and (b) classroom in each of the next three years.

Edward Timpson: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Schools: Immigrants

Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations she has received from (a) local authorities and (b) other bodies on the pressures on school places due to immigration from (i) EU and (ii) non-EU countries.

Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what research her Department has (a) undertaken and (b) commissioned on the effect of immigration on the demand for school places; and if she will make a statement.

Andrea Jenkyns: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on taking account of the effect on the demand for school places caused by immigration (a) in general and (b) from nationals from other EEA countries.

Edward Timpson: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Primary Education: Nottinghamshire

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary school age children from Nottinghamshire who have applied for a place at primary school starting in September 2016 were not accepted at their first or second choice schools.

Nick Gibb: Information on school place preferences for entry in September 2016 is not yet available and is due to be released in June 2016.Data for the most recent years available is provided in the table below.Nottinghamshire local authority, primary school preferences, 2015/16   Number% Number of applicants9,171Of which those who:   Received 1st or 2nd preference8,68794.7 Did not receive 1st or 2nd preference4845.3

Primary Education: Admissions

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department has issued to local education authorities on setting admission criteria for oversubscribed primary schools.

Nick Gibb: School admission authorities are responsible for setting admissions criteria for their schools. The statutory School Admissions Code sets out the requirements which all admission authorities must comply with when setting their admissions criteria. It can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/389388/School_Admissions_Code_2014_-_19_Dec.pdf

Primary Education: Nottinghamshire

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and which primary schools in (a) Ashfield constituency and (b) Nottinghamshire were full or oversubscribed for the school years commencing September (i) 2015, (ii) 2012 and (iii) 2009.

Nick Gibb: The Department collects information from each local authority on the number of schools, the number of places in those schools and the number of pupils on roll through the annual school capacity survey (SCAP). The Department does not collect school capacity information at Parliamentary constituency level.The data is published annually. Data relating to the position in the 2015/16 academic year will be collected over the coming months.Data for May 2013 (relating to academic year 2012/13) can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-capacity-academic-year-2012-to-2013Data for May 2010 (relating to academic year 2009/10) can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-capacity-2009-to-2010-finalThe Department does not collect capacity information relating to the position as at September, nor does it collect information on over-subscription.As of May 2013 (which relates to academic year 2012/13), 76 primary schools in Nottinghamshire were full or had at least one pupil in excess of capacity. As of May 2010 (which relates to academic year 2009/10), 75 primary schools in Nottinghamshire were full or had at least one pupil in excess of capacity.The individual schools can be identified in the underlying data for each publication by comparing the capacity of the school with the number on roll.

Students: Transport

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 April 2016 to Question 33944, whether the decision not to change statutory guidance on post-16 transport to education and training will be subject to review as area reviews of further education progress.

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures she plans to take to support further education students with additional travel costs arising from mergers of institutions as a result of area reviews of post-16 education.

Mr Sam Gyimah: Area reviews of post-16 education are focused on meeting the needs of learners in each area, and because they are overseen by steering groups including Chairs and Principals of colleges as well as local authorities, they are well placed to do this. The steering group’s discussions and recommendations are based on the best available evidence, including an analysis of local economic and educational needs and the mapping of current curriculum provision and travel to learn patterns. Recommendations made by the steering group, including mergers, should improve access to better quality teaching delivered by sustainable institutions focused on meeting learner need.Local authorities are members of area review steering groups and have statutory responsibility for transport to education and training for 16- to 19-year-olds. We expect local authorities to make reasonable decisions about the support they offer based on the needs of their young people, local transport infrastructure and the resources they have available. Authorities will need to take account of the recommendations arising from each area review and the impact on transport for learners. We will reflect this in the next version of the post-16 transport statutory guidance which we plan to update in the autumn.Most young people already have access to some kind of discount or concession on bus or train travel, either from their local authority, local transport providers, or from their school or college, and we would expect this to continue following any changes to post-16 provision as a result of area reviews. The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund will continue to be available to support those young people who most need it, with the costs of attending post-16 education or training such as transport and meals.

Special Educational Needs: Greater Manchester

Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding was allocated to schools for supporting children with learning difficulties in (a) Manchester, Withington constituency and (b) Greater Manchester in each of the last three years.

Mr Sam Gyimah: Funding for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) is allocated to local authorities through the dedicated schools grant, which includes both funding to be delegated to mainstream schools, and funding for the additional costs associated with educating children and young people with high needs.Schools are funded through a formula set by their local authority, and local authorities are required to delegate funds to a level that enables schools to meet the additional cost of pupils with SEN up to £6,000 per annum. It is for individual schools to decide how they allocate their overall budget to ensure they meet the specific needs of children with learning difficulties.For those pupils whose additional support costs more than £6,000 the local authority pays top-up funding to the schools from their high needs budget. Top-up funding rates are for local authorities to agree with their schools.The high needs allocation, within the dedicated schools grant, for the Greater Manchester local authorities in each of the last three years were as set out below: 2013-14 (£million)2014-15 (£million)2015-16 (£million)Bolton25.8327.1527.55Bury22.5024.0824.17Manchester59.8363.3464.07Oldham23.5424.9025.58Salford22.1022.7522.82Stockport27.6229.0429.44Tameside25.8227.1428.23Trafford13.8114.7914.73Wigan22.8823.3424.08We do not hold information on the total funding for supporting children with learning difficulties allocated to schools in the Manchester, Withington constituency or in the Greater Manchester area.

Schools: Finance

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve transparency and accountability in spending by schools.

Mr Sam Gyimah: Appropriate arrangements are currently in place to ensure that school spending is transparent. Details of income and expenditure in all maintained schools and academies are published annually by the department in Statistical First Releases, available on GOV.UK. The Permanent Secretary’s Accountability System Statement sets out in detail the accountability system for education, including maintained schools and academies, and for children’s services.While we are always interested in improving transparency and accountability in spending by schools we have no current plans for changes.

Academies

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the press notice Next Steps to spread educational excellence everywhere announced, dated 6 May 2016, how long before she made the announcement of her decision to change her policy on schools becoming academies that decision was made.

Edward Timpson: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Special Educational Needs: Lancashire

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much of the Dedicated Schools Grant allocated to Lancashire County Council was spent on Special Educational Needs support for children under five years old in the last year for which data is available.

Mr Sam Gyimah: In 2014-15 the spend on Special Educational Needs support for children under five years from the high needs block of the dedicated schools grant allocated to Lancashire County Council was about £2.53 million. This information is as reported by the local authority and published in the following document: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/section-251-outturn-2014-to-2015-data

Teachers: Parking

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2016 to Question 36326, what representations she has received from (a) schools and (b) trades union representatives on the ability of academy trusts to charge teachers for car parking services on school grounds; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Timpson: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Academies: Finance

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the total amount awarded to schools in pre-opening support grants in each month of the last three years; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Timpson: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Special Educational Needs: Lancashire

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in (a) Burnley and (b) Lancashire have an Education, Health and Care 0-25 years Special Educational Needs plan.

Edward Timpson: Information on the number of children with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan by local authority in January 2015 based on the SEN2 return is available on GOV.UK in the Statistical First Release ‘Statements of SEN and EHC plans: England 2015’: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2015 (Table 3).This data is collected at local authority level and cannot be disaggregated to constituency level.Data for January 2016 will be published on 26 May 2016.

Ministry of Justice

Young Offenders: Discipline

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many exception incident reports have been submitted to the Youth Justice Board or Ministers in his Department by (a) youth offender institutions, (b) secure training centres and (c) secure children's homes in each of the last five years.

Andrew Selous: As of March 2013, the Minimising and Managing Physical Restraint (MMPR) system has been gradually rolled out across Secure Training Centres (STCs) and under-18 Young Offender Institutes (YOIs). As part of the MMPR roll out, the Serious Injuries and Warning Signs (SIWS) system was introduced for reporting incidents where a restraint resulted in a young person or member of staff being seriously injured and requiring hospital treatment or showing warning signs of serious injury. When a SIWS report is made, the MMPR national team based at the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is responsible for investigating the incident (at both STCs and YOIs), along with the Independent Medical Advisor to NOMS. We published data on MMPR incidents which result in serious injuries as part of the yoth justice annual statistics 2014/15: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/youth-justice-annual-statistics-2014-to-2015 Since the SIWS system has only been rolled out in a few institutions gradually, this is not currently routinely published but we are considering the routine publication of all SIWS data in the future. The table below provides a breakdown of the number of exception incidents submitted by STCs and under-18 YOIs for the period 2013 to 2015. Due to the gradual roll out of the SIWS system, the table includes information on incidents reported under both the previous PCC system and the new SIWS system for STCs. As under-18 YOIs did not use the PCC system (YOIs used a system called Control and Restraint), the table only includes incidents reported as part of the new SIWS system for under-18 YOIs. Information on the SIWS system roll-out dates by institution can be found in the notes for the table below. Care should be taken when comparing figures between years and sectors as the annual totals are based on different numbers of institutions, which have implemented MMPR at different points in time. For STCs, the table also includes reports submitted under the previous PCC exception reporting system prior to implementing MMPR. The table below sets out the number of exception incidents related to use of force submitted to the National Offender Management Service between 2013 and 2015 for STCs and under-18 YOIs:  Establishment type201320142015Secure Training Centres234968Under-18 Youth Offender Institutions3158   The table below sets out the MMPR roll out dates for those institutions currently using the MMPR system: InstitutionMMPR and SIWS reporting system roll-out dateUsed PCC exception reporting system prior to MMPR?Rainsbrook STCMarch 2013YesOakhill STCSeptember 2013YesMedway STCJune 2014YesWetherby YOIOctober 2013NoWerrington YOIMay 2015NoCookham Wood YOIJune 2015No The SIWS reporting system is not currently used by SCHs and therefore no information is held centrally for this sector.

Youth Custody

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the proportion of young offenders remanded to local authority accommodation that stayed in local authority accommodation for the whole remand period in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Shailesh Vara: The proportion of young people who stayed in local authority accommodation (LAA) for their whole remand period, ending in 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15, after being initially remanded to LAA by the criminal courts is shown in the table below. It should be noted that the data covers only those who were initially remanded to LAA, not those remanded on bail or, securely, to Youth Detention Accommodation (YDA). A young person will ordinarily be remanded on bail but may instead be remanded to LAA where bail is refused for welfare reasons, for example where they are already in care or there are concerns about the young person’s living arrangements. A young person refused bail may also instead be remanded to YDA where charged with a serious offence. The initial decision to remand a young person on bail, to LAA or YDA may later be changed by the court, for example, where the young person is subsequently charged with further and more serious offences, in light of new information about their circumstances or a change is made to the original charging decision.The proportion of young people who stayed in local authority accommodation (LAA) for their whole remand period, ending in 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15, after being initially remanded to LAA by the criminal courts   YearProportion (%)  2012/1324.05%  2013/1421.71%  2014/1521.20%  Notes 1 The proportions presented in the table above are derived from a count of young people and not remand episodes2 The data is broken down by the financial year in which the young person was eventually acquitted, sentenced or dealt with in some other way. The remand to LAA may therefore have begun in a year preceding that shown in the data.3 The data will differ from other published figures on the number of young people remanded to LAA because different counting rules were used.4 The data has been taken from the YJB’s Youth Justice Management Information System (YJMIS) database. Data from this database is submitted to the YJB by Youth Offending Teams.5 These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing and can be subject to change over time.

Prisoners: Repatriation

Mrs Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign national offenders from each other EU member state serving a custodial sentence in the UK in each of the last 10 years have been transferred to serve the remainder of their sentence in another EU member state.

Andrew Selous: It is right that foreign criminals who break our laws are properly punished but this shouldn’t be at the expense of the British taxpayer. Since 2007, a total of 402 foreign national offenders have been transferred from England and Wales to other EU Member States to complete their sentence, 73 under the EU Prisoner Transfer Agreement The table below shows the number transferred to complete their sentence in each year since 2007. The comparable information is not available for the prior years. EU Member StatesYear of transfer 2007Year of transfer 2008Year of transfer 2009Year of transfer 2010Year of transfer 2011Year of transfer 2012Year of transfer 2013Year of transfer 2014Year of transfer 2015 Austria   1 1Belgium105121 2 324Bulgaria11Croatia  Cyprus2  1 11  5Czech Republic  11412 110Denmark11Estonia  Finland  10 France344  11  13Germany2 4 1   18Greece1  113Hungary  Republic of Ireland541  21  13Italy11 114Latvia  1225Lithuania1  4 321112Luxembourg  1  1Malta  1  1Netherlands754225241220161212238Poland11 31123214Portugal   21111 6Romania 115714Slovakia   3912Slovenia  11 2Spain231 222 214Sweden The numbers reported here are drawn from a case management system. Care is taken when processing these cases but the figures may be subject to inaccuracies associated with any recording system.

Prisoners: Crimes of Violence

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners convicted of each offence in the violence against the person category are held in open wings of closed prisons.

Andrew Selous: Open units within closed prisons are a cost-effective means of providing regional resettlement opportunities for prisoners who are deemed suitable for such accommodation following a risk-assessment. Progression to open prisons or to open units within closed prisons is never automatic and prisoners must generally be within two years of release before they can be considered for allocation. Only those prisoners who are assessed having a low risk of escape or abscond and risk of harm to the public a will be allocated to open prison conditions. The number of prisoners convicted of offences within the category of ‘violence against the person’ and who are held in open wings of closed prisons is set out in Table 1 below. Table 1: The number of sentenced prisoners held in open wings of closed prisons for Violence against the person offences by detailed offence as at 31 March 2016 in England and Wales   Numbers at 31 March 2016Violence against the person - Total62Homicide  Murder20 Manslaughter and corporate manslaughter3Violence with injury  Attempted murder3 Causing death or serious injury by dangerous driving4 Causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving* Assault with intent to cause serious harm21 Endangering life* Assault with injury4Violence without injury  Threats to kill* Kidnapping* Other violence against the person offences*  Data sources and quality  The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.  An asterisk (*) has been used to suppress values of two or fewer. This is to prevent the disclosure of individual information. Includes only prisoners held within open units which are part of a closed prison. Excludes prisoners held in dedicated open prisons or dedicated open prisons which are managed as part of a wider cluster of prisons. Source: Ministry of Justice (JSAS/PQ 36181)

Personal Injury: Compensation

Jim Fitzpatrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answers of 5 and 12 January 2016 to Questions 20499 and 20722, what assessment his Department has made of the relationship between trends in the levels of motor accident rates and claims payments since 2006.

Dominic Raab: Government data indicates that claims volumes remain at historically high levels. Over a similar period data from the Department for Transport shows accident rates have fallen by around 25%. This is clear evidence that the system is in need of further reform, which is why on 25 November 2015, in his Autumn Statement, the Chancellor announced new measures to reduce the cost and number of whiplash claims. The Government will consult on the detail of these reforms in due course and the consultation document will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

Child Rearing

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance is issued to family court judges on Parental Alienation syndrome and implacable hostility.

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Children's Act 1989 to protect children from the effects of Parental Alienation syndrome and implacable hostility.

Caroline Dinenage: Guidance on Parental Alienation Syndrome is not issued to family court judges as the ‘syndrome’ is not recognised as such by many professionals in this country. The Children Act 1989 contains adequate provisions to protect against the effects of parental alienation or implacable hostility. These include the requirement for the court to ascertain the wishes and feelings of a child who is the subject of a parental dispute, commensurate with that child’s age and level of understanding and the power to request Cafcass to prepare a welfare report into any matters relevant to the child or the family. Cafcass practitioners are aware of the potential for children to be influenced or alienated by parental views and are alert to this possibility throughout the case.

Courts: Fines

John Glen: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the current total balance is of outstanding financial penalties imposed by courts.

John Glen: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many financial penalties imposed by courts are currently outstanding.

Mr Shailesh Vara: The total balance of outstanding financial impositions (fines, compensation, victim surcharge, prosecution costs and criminal courts charge) can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2015 At the end of December 2015 (latest published period) there were 1,226,716 live financial accounts. An account can include one or any combination of the different imposition types.

Prime Minister

Prime Minister: Speeches

Tim Loughton: To ask the Prime Minister, what funding from the public purse was allocated to the event at the British Museum which he addressed on 9 May 2016.

Mr David Cameron: Costs are still being finalised. Details of my speeches are published on the gov.uk website.

Suliman Gani

Mr Keith Simpson: To ask the Prime Minister, if he will clarify his recent remarks concerning Suliman Gani.

Mr David Cameron: I was referring to reports that Mr Gani supports an Islamic state. I am clear that this does not mean Mr Gani supports the organisation Daesh and I apologise to him for any misunderstanding.

Ministry of Defence

Armed Forces: Inquiries

Mrs Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what guidance there is for briefing relatives following Boards of Inquiry which take place when there has been an in-service death; and if he will make a statement.

Penny Mordaunt: Boards of Inquiry were replaced in 2008 by Service Inquiries. The policy on Service Inquiries, which includes support to families, is laid out in Ministry of Defence Joint Service Publication (JSP) 832, Guide to Service Inquiries.Further, JSP 751, Joint Casualty and Compassionate Policy and Procedures, provides the framework and direction on casualty management, from which the single Services develop and deliver their support for bereaved families. No distinction is made between operational and non-operational deaths.Although JSPs 832 and 751 lay out the overarching policy and processes, the single Services may involve different organisations in supporting bereaved families according to individual need and local circumstances. In the case of a Defence Safety Authority Service Inquiry, next of kin are offered a personal brief from the Inquiry President on the findings before they are published.

Armed Forces Covenant

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to encourage more businesses to sign the Armed Forces Covenant.

Mr Philip Dunne: The Ministry of Defence recognises the value of open, mutually beneficial relationships with employers, which is why we have introduced professionalised employer engagement at the national and regional level.The relationships we are building show that supporting the Armed Forces community is not only the right thing for employers to do, but can also yield tangible business benefits. Showing support by signing the Armed Forces Covenant can enhance the reputation of a company and attract the interest of Reservists and Service leavers; highly skilled, well-trained professionals who can add real value to a business.Since 2014 the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) has provided visible recognition to those employers which support Defence and is inspiring others to do the same. The scheme encompasses bronze, silver and gold awards for employer organisations that pledge, demonstrate or advocate support to Defence and the Armed Forces community. Publicity around the ERS and the Armed Forces Covenant is valuable to both Defence and the employers involved. Ministers regularly attend Armed Forces Covenant signing events, most recently with ISS UK.Our approach is delivering benefit; almost 1,000 employers have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and research shows that overall awareness of the Covenant has increased significantly over the last year.

Military Aircraft

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) E3-D Sentry and (b) Voyager aircraft are in operational use.

Mr Philip Dunne: The number of E-3D Sentry and Voyager aircraft in operation with the RAF as at 1 May 2016 is given below.  Forward FleetSustainment FleetTotalE-3D Sentry426Voyager909 The Forward Fleet comprises serviceable and short term unserviceable aircraft. Typically the short term unserviceable aircraft are undergoing minor works, forward maintenance or any other unforeseen rectification or technical inspection that can arise on a day-to-day basis. The Sustainment Fleet includes aircraft undergoing deep maintenance, upgrade programmes or being held in storage. It excludes those declared redundant, surplus or awaiting decommissioning or disposal.

Armed Forces: Equality

Mr David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 27 April 2016 to Question 34579, what plans his Department has to publish information on the performance of the Defence Diversity and Inclusion Programme in increasing the diversity of the armed forces since that programme was established.

Mr David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 27 April 2016 to Question 34579, what funding was allocated to the Defence Diversity and Inclusion Programme in (a) 2014, (b) 2015 and (c) 2016; and how many staff are directly responsible for the (i) strategy and (ii) delivery of that programme.

Penny Mordaunt: The Defence Diversity and Inclusion Programme (DDIP) is driving change in the core areas of leadership and culture; recruitment; retention and progression; and outreach by ensuring diversity and inclusion considerations as part of normal business across the whole Department. This involves staff and funding across all areas of the Department, to define how this should be done and ensure delivery as part of people's existing roles wherever they work.The Ministry of Defence is dedicated to achieving a more diverse workforce and is undertaking various activities to increase the number of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) recruits into the Armed Forces to 10% by 2020 and has allocated resources for this purpose.The cost of funding the DDIP is disaggregated amongst budgets across the Department; therefore a response could only be provided at disproportionate cost. As part of the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review we dedicated additional resources to recruitment activity in order to help generate a more diverse workforce and reach all parts of the UK's Armed Forces community.

Great Lakes Region: Military Aid

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the purpose is of the training provided by the UK armed forces to the security and armed forces personnel of Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Penny Mordaunt: The UK Armed Forces do not currently provide any training to security and Armed Forces personnel of Burundi or the Democratic Republic of Congo.We provide some limited training to the Rwandan Armed Forces, largely at the Rwandan Peace Academy and Staff College and through occasional places at UK staff colleges. This training is in support of security sector reform and effective and compliant Rwandan contributions to peace support and disaster relief operations.We also deliver training to the African Union's Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF), as part of our effort to build the EASF's capacity to conduct peace support operations. This training includes elements such as protection of civilians and civil and military cooperation. Some Burundian and Rwandan Armed Forces personnel attached to the EASF may attend this training.

Department for Work and Pensions

Work Programme: Offenders

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of offenders who joined the Work Programme on leaving prison secured a sustained job outcome within two years in each year since 2011.

Priti Patel: The number of JSA prison leavers by Work Programme attachment and job outcome from 2012, is published and available at:http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/WorkProg/tabtool.html Guidance for users can be found at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance

Post Office Card Account

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to change provision of the Post Office Card Account.

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to continue payment of benefits through the Post Office Card Account for the next five years.

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans that the Post Office Card Account will be available until 2021.

Priti Patel: Post Office Card Accounts provide a useful service to many people and there are no plans to change provision. The Department recognises, however, that working age claimants may also be receiving wages. As the account does not receive wages or allow for direct debit or standing order facilities, Post Office Card Accounts are not suitable for all of their needs. Those claimants are therefore being encouraged to open main stream bank accounts including credit union accounts. The Post Office Card Account contract was awarded from 01 December 2014 and expires on 30 November 2021 and there are no plans to amend that term.

Jobcentres: Lytham St Annes

Mark Menzies: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff are employed by Jobcentre Plus at Westmorland House, Lytham St. Annes.

Priti Patel: There are currently 31 people employed at Westmorland House, whose working patterns equate to 26.48 whole time equivalents.

Jobcentres: Lytham St Annes

Mark Menzies: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to close or relocate Jobcentre Plus at Westmorland House, Lytham St. Annes.

Priti Patel: The Department is in the process of reviewing all of its estates requirements as the current contract for most of the estate comes to an end in March 2018. Commercial negotiations are underway at this time and consequently it is not appropriate to comment on any sites.

Disability Living Allowance: Northern Ireland

Ian C. Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much in supplementary payments he estimates will be paid to disability living allowance claimants in Northern Ireland refused personal independence payments on reassessment who successfully appeal that refusal in the next three years.

Justin Tomlinson: Social Security is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland and is the responsibility of the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland.

Carer's Allowance

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people who have decreased their working hours in order to remain eligible for the carers allowance since the introduction of the National Living Wage.

Justin Tomlinson: I have made no such estimate and I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to her on the 25 April 2016 to Question UIN34752

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Food

Nick Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the budget is for food produced for her Department's offices at Smith Square, London; and what proportion of food produced for her Department was sourced from British producers in the last period for which figures are available.

George Eustice: Defra does not set a budget for food served in the canteen at its Smith Square offices (Nobel House). Catering services are provided by a private company under contract to Defra which leases facilities in Nobel House and provides food to staff without subsidy. Spending on food is determined by the contractor based on sales receipts from Defra staff.Defra has worked with its current supplier to align the existing contract with the requirements of the balanced scorecard.The amount of food sourced from British producers for Nobel House was 56% (Jan-Mar 2016). This figure includes non-indigenous products; including drinks such as tea and coffee. It marks, overall, an improvement of 4% over the previous quarter. Furthermore, all meat, milk and yoghurt served in Nobel House is produced in the UK.

Agriculture: Scotland

Dr Paul Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential effect on farmers in (a) Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross and (b) Scotland of the UK leaving the EU.

George Eustice: At the February European Council, the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government's position is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.

Bees: Neonicotinoids

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, by what means she will assess the risk to bee populations when considering emergency applications for the use of neonicotinoid pesticides on crops.

George Eustice: Emergency authorisation is a procedure set out in law which allows for the authorisation of a pesticide product for a period not exceeding 120 days, for “limited and controlled use, where such a measure appears necessary because of a danger which cannot be contained by any other reasonable means”.All applications for emergency authorisation in the UK, including those for neonicotinoids, are decided according to these criteria following an expert assessment of the scientific data.

Petrol Alternatives

Mr Gary Streeter: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has reviewed the Alternative Fuels Framework as part of its consultation on its National Air Quality Plan.

Rory Stewart: The national air quality plan for nitrogen dioxide that we published in December last year sets out a comprehensive approach to improving air quality and reducing health impacts. It recognises that the use of alternative fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and liquefied and compressed natural gas, where appropriate, presents opportunities to improve emissions from vehicles. The plan sets out some of the measures we are taking to support innovation in this area. The Government continues to review evidence concerning the environmental impact of alternative fuels. Any changes to the tax treatment of alternative fuels are announced at fiscal events.

Motor Vehicles: Exhaust Emissions

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the comparative particulate pollution created by (a) diesel and (b) electric cars.

Rory Stewart: The UK’s main air quality concerns relate to ambient concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, in particular close to busy roads, with diesel vehicles being the major source. Electric vehicles have zero exhaust emissions and offer a clear benefit in tackling this ongoing air quality challenge. On pollution from particulate matter, evidence is limited. Recent research suggests that battery electric vehicles have similar total emissions of particulate matter to petrol and diesel vehicles, due to their higher mass causing increased non-exhaust particulate matter. The UK Automotive Council has identified vehicle lightweighting as a strategic technology priority, and recent Government research and development funding of £38 million will support a number of projects in this area.

Food: Procurement

John Glen: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential effect on British farming of the Plan for Public Procurement, published in July 2014.

George Eustice: Total spend on public sector food and catering services is around £2.4 billion. The Plan for Public Procurement launched a new approach to the way the Government and its catering providers buy food. It provides a transparent set of criteria that allow contracting parties to reach agreement about the quality and value of products and services. British farmers are well placed to meet these standards and to compete for a further £400 million of business that the Plan opens up.

Pollinators

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the financial value of pollinators to the economy; and if she will make a statement.

George Eustice: I refer the hon. Member to the reply previously given on 18 January 2016, PQ UIN 22302.

Neonicotinoids

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the total (a) cost of monitoring and (b) number of full-time equivalent officials of her Department supporting the emergency authorisation period for neonicotinoid pesticides which expired on 20 November 2015.

George Eustice: Defra has not made any such estimates.

Department for Communities and Local Government

Owner Occupation

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of households that owned their home in each year since 2010; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis: Of the estimated 22.5 million households in England in 2014-15, 14.3 million or 64% were owner occupiers. The proportion of all households in owner occupation increased steadily from the 1980s to 2003 when it reached a peak of 71%. A period of gradual decline in owner occupation followed but this has recently abated with a slight increase in owner occupation rates between 2013-14 and 2014-15.The department publishes this information annually in the English Housing Survey headline report. Percentage of households that are owner occupiers, England: Thousands of householdspercentages19809,68056.619819,86057.2198210,23758.6198310,61360.0198410,99061.3198511,30562.4198611,61963.5198711,93464.6198812,24865.7198912,51566.3199012,78267.0199113,05067.6199213,06968.2199313,28068.3199413,42968.7199513,46768.5199613,52268.5199713,62968.6199813,81769.0199914,09169.9200014,34070.6200114,35970.4200214,55970.5200314,70170.9200414,67870.7200514,79170.7200614,79170.1200714,73369.6200814,62868.32008-0914,62167.92009-1014,52567.42010-1114,45066.02011-1214,38865.32012-1314,33765.22013-1414,31963.32014-1514,32463.6

European Regional Development Fund

Andrew Bridgen: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of administering EU Regional Development Funds in each of the (a) last and (b) next five years.

James Wharton: The Department for Communities and Local Government took on full responsibility for the administration and management of the European Regional Development Fund from 1 st July 2011.Administration costs: 2011/12 (1st July-31st March)2012/132013/142014/152015/16Total  Net Expenditure*£8.18m£10.58m£9.28m£10.18m£12.58m£50.8m*Includes income reimbursed to DCLG by the European Commission  This cost is approximately 2% of the EU funding administered - the current benchmark set by the Cabinet Office for grant administration is between 3 and 4%.DCLG is currently undergoing a review of its resources following the spending review, it would not be appropriate to comment on the potential costs over the next 5 years whilst this review is ongoing.

Private Rented Housing: Housing Benefit

Mr Geoffrey Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to help people in receipt of housing benefit secure private rented accommodation.

Brandon Lewis: The English Housing Survey, funded by the Department, published its Headline Report 2014-15 in February which showed that 27% of privately rented households are in receipt of housing benefit. This demonstrates that the private rented sector remains accessible to housing benefit claimants.The key to improving choice and affordability for tenants is to increase the supply of private rented homes. That’s why the Government introduced the £1 billion Build to Rent fund, and the £3.5 billion Private Rented Sector guarantee scheme, to finance thousands of extra homes built specifically for private rent.

Cornish Language: Education

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 May 2016 to Question 35516, how much funding was allocated to programmes to support the learning of the Cornish language in each year since 2010.

James Wharton: DCLG Cornish language funding to Cornwall Council since 2010. Year Annual funding 2010/11 £150,0002011/12 £140,0002012/13 £120,0002013/14 £100,0002014/15 £120,0002015/16 £150,000Cornwall Council has a core spending power of £1.7 billion over the next four years.

Communities and Local Government: Taxis

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 5 May 2016 to Question 36169, how many taxi journeys his Department paid for in each of the last five years.

Mr Mark Francois: The Department records all travel spend under the category of travel and subsistence costs. This is reported in DCLG annual accounts. We are unable to break down the travel and subsistence costs to identify the number of taxi journeys in the last 5 years. This would involve manually analysing individual supplier transactions and could only be done at disproportionate cost.

Right to Buy Scheme: Greater London

Mr David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of what the likely change in the level of social housing stock will be if the proposed extension of right-to-buy to housing association properties is agreed in (a) Tottenham, (b) Enfield, (c) Haringey, (d) Barnet, (e) Islington and (f) London in (i) 2016 and (ii) each of the next three years.

Brandon Lewis: Under the voluntary agreement with the National Housing Federation and housing associations, every home sold to tenants will result in an additional affordable home being provided. At least two new affordable homes will be provided for each high value vacant property that is expected to be sold in London. This will lead to an increase in overall housing supply.

Affordable Housing: Greater London

Mr David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the number of affordable starter homes that will be built in (a) Tottenham, (b) Islington, (c) Barnet, (d) Haringey, (e) Enfield and (f) London in (i) 2016 and (ii) each of the next four years.

Mr David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the average price of affordable starter homes that will be built in (a) Tottenham, (b) Islington, (c) Barnet, (d) Haringey, (e) Enfield and (f) London in (i) 2016 and (ii) each of the next four years.

Brandon Lewis: The Starter Homes policy is expected to deliver at least a 20% discount from market value on new homes built for first time buyers under 40 years of age. We recognise that first time buyers can face affordability pressures within parts of London which is why we want Starter Homes to make a significant contribution to housing delivery. The London £450k price cap is not an expectation of the going price for a Starter Home. In London in 2014, the average price paid by a first time buyer was £364k – which would equate to a starter homes price of £291k. We are consulting on starter homes regulations which will set the requirement for starter homes and any exemptions. The Department does not make assessments on the number of starter homes that are to be built by local authority area.

Broadband

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to review the rating system for fibre networks in order to remove disadvantages for new operators.

Mr Marcus Jones: All properties including new and existing fibre telecom networks are valued for business rates to the same standard of annual rental value. Rateable values are assessed independently by the Valuation Office Agency and may be challenged in the courts. The Upper Tribunal, the Court of Appeal and the European Commission have all supported the Valuation Office Agency’s valuation method for telecom networks.

Supported Housing

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many specially adapted homes for (a) disabled and (b) elderly people there were in (i) Sunderland, (ii) the North East and (iii) England in 2014-15.

Brandon Lewis: The Department for Communities and Local Government does not collect data on the number of specially adapted homes. However, the Department does collect data on the number of Disabled Facilities Grants completed annually in England. The latest data available from 2013-14 indicates 42,586 adaptations were provided.The Government is committed to helping older and disabled people to live independently and safely in their own homes for as a long as possible. Since 2010 we have invested over one billion pounds (£1,005,000,000) into the Disabled Facilities Grant, providing around 250,000 adaptations for older and disabled people's homes in England.

Sleeping Rough: Temporary Accommodation

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 33117, which programmes the reprioritisation of £100 million in capital funding to deliver low-cost second stage accommodation for rough sleepers will affect.

Mr Marcus Jones: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

English Language: Education

Mr Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which (a) communities and (b) projects will receive funding from the English Language scheme.

Mr Marcus Jones: We are working to develop the new English language programme, including ensuring it is focused on those areas where we know women are at greatest risk of isolation and are more likely to have no or little proficiency in the English language. We will make an announcement as soon as possible.

Housing Associations

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the Housing and Planning Bill on housing associations that manage properties on behalf of councils.

Brandon Lewis: The Housing and Planning Bill intends to reduce the regulatory controls for private registered providers of social housing with the aim to reclassify housing associations as private organisations.Through the Bill, the Secretary of State will have the power by affirmative regulations, to make provision for the purpose of limiting or removing the ability of local authorities to exert influence over private registered providers of social housing, through the nomination of board members and acting as shareholders. We will be discussing the potential impact of these regulations with some housing associations and local authorities, in advance of regulations being introduced later in 2016.

HM Treasury

Taxation: EU Law

Andrew Rosindell: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many European Court of Justice decisions on taxation his Department has (a) won and (b) lost in the last six years.

Mr David Gauke: In the last six years HM Treasury argued one case on taxation as the lead Department before the European Court of Justice. The judgment went against the UK, but the protective purpose was nevertheless served.

Taxation

Tulip Siddiq: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the oral contribution by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury on 13 April 2016, Official Report, column 374, on tax avoidance and evasion, whether (a) the Guardian, (b) the BBC, (c) the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and (d) the Süddeutsche Zeitung have agreed to provide the data they received.

Greg Hands: HM Revenue & Customs has asked the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the BBC and The Guardian to share their data. The BBC and The Guardian have confirmed that they do not hold the data. The ICIJ have refused to share their data with us, stating that their policy is not to hand over such material. While we welcome the steps they have taken in exposing this issue, their decision not to release the full set of information to us is disappointing.

Taxation: Business

Tulip Siddiq: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraphs H.2 to H.6 of HM Revenue and Customs document, Measuring tax gaps 2015 edition: methodological annex, published in October 2015, what the initial estimate was of the value of large business tax under consideration (a) in total and (b) for each tax to which large businesses are subject in each year since 2009-10; how many times those estimates were revised (i) up and (ii) down in each such year and for each such tax; and what the total revised value of large business tax under consideration was after HM Revenue and Custom's negotiations with those businesses.

Tulip Siddiq: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) statistics release, Measuring tax gaps 2015 edition: methodological annex, published on 22 October 2015, what proportion of large businesses listed on HMRC's database have (a) at least once and (b) on seven occasions challenged HMRC's initial estimate of their tax liability in the period from 2009-10 to 2015-16.

Greg Hands: Tax under consideration is HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) estimate of the maximum potential additional tax liability in each case, before they have carried out a full investigation of the specific facts or analysis of relevant law. It is not actual tax either owed or unpaid; it is a tool to guide HMRC enquiries to focus on the most significant risks that exist at any particular time with the largest businesses. In many cases, when HMRC have looked at the full facts it becomes clear that there is some lesser additional liability or even no additional liability at all. Tax under consideration is a snapshot of work in progress and will naturally vary from time to time as outstanding issues are settled and new risks are identified. Tax under consideration covers all taxes, including Corporation Tax, VAT, PAYE and National lnsurance contributions. As it is an internal estimate used within HMRC, it is not subject to challenge by large businesses. Until 31 March 2014, HMRC’s Large Business Service dealt with the tax affairs of around 800 of the largest businesses in the UK. From 1 April 2014 HMRC’s Large Business directorate deals with the tax affairs of around 2,000 large businesses. Snapshots of tax under consideration in each year were: HMRC’s Large Business directorate (largest 2,000 businesses):31 March 2015 - £19 billion HMRC’s Large Business Service (largest 800 businesses):31 March 2014 - £15.7 billion31 July 2013 - £18.8 billion31 July 2012 - £21.3 billion31 March 2011 - £25.5 billion31 March 2010 - £33.4 billion The estimate of total tax under consideration shown in Measuring Tax Gaps Table 7.1, page 62, differs from the figures above for two reasons:it shows tax under consideration for the individual financial years relating to liabilityit includes corporation tax only.

Tax Evasion

Tulip Siddiq: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his Department's news story of 10 April 2016, UK launches cross-government taskforce on the Panama Papers, how many full-time equivalent staff from each agency have been allocated to that taskforce; and whether any staff in that taskforce (a) have the power of arrest, (b) are authorised to access directly the contents of Suspicious Activity Reports, (c) are able to request data on companies incorporated in foreign countries and (d) have powers to fully investigate any allegations of (i) non-compliance with sanctions, (ii) money laundering and (iii) terrorist financing.

Mr David Gauke: There are upward of 100 people currently involved in the multi-agency Taskforce. The number of officers holding each different power is not recorded centrally. Each taskforce member agency has its own statutory powers, networks, functions and confidentiality restrictions. By drawing on these powers and networks, the taskforce will be more effective than any single agency acting independently.

Treasury: Dairy Products

Nick Smith: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of dairy products procured for his Department was sourced from British producers in the latest period for which figures are available.

Harriett Baldwin: Catering Services in 1 Horse Guards Road are provided at zero subsidy under our 35 year PFI agreement with Exchequer Partnerships Plc. (EP). Food is procured by a sub-contractor to EP. The latest period for which figures are available is July 2014 to September 2015. In this period, 84.81% of dairy products procured were sourced from UK producers.

Taxation: Profits

Tulip Siddiq: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much was raised by the diverted profits tax in 2015-16.

Mr David Gauke: The Diverted Profits Tax is designed to counteract contrived arrangements used to avoid tax in the UK, and incentivise businesses to change their behaviour and pay tax on profits from economic activities in the UK. The Office for Budget Responsibility's (OBR) recent assessment at Budget 2016 is that overall yield (including Corporation Tax from behavioural change) is expected to be close to that originally scored. The OBR noted on page 122 of its “Economic and fiscal outlook” March 2016: “Our forecast assumes that overall yield from the measure will be close to that originally scored, but we now expect that around two-thirds of the yield will come through higher Corporation Tax payments (as firms restructure their tax affairs) rather than via the diverted profits tax itself.” This is available at: http://cdn.budgetresponsibility.org.uk/March2016EFO.pdf.

Treasury: Legal Representation

Tulip Siddiq: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, for how many court and tribunal cases his Department did not send a legal representative in each year since 2009-10.

Harriett Baldwin: As far as I am aware there were no cases of this kind in the period 2009-10 to the present.

Revenue and Customs

Tulip Siddiq: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what sub-departments HMRC has in addition to the Tax Capacity Building Unit, the Large Business Service/Directorate, the Compliance Unit, the Transfer Pricing Unit, the Business International Directorate, and the Anti-Money Laundering Supervision Team; and (a) what funds were allocated to and (b) how many FTE staff were employed by each sub-department in each year since 2009-10.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is split into four sub-departments, or business areas, for delivery purposes, which are supported by corporate areas. Please see below the expenditure and full time equivalent (FTE) staff for each of those areas for the period 2009/10 onwards. Net expenditure (£m)  09/1010/1111/1212/1313/1414/15Enforcement and Compliance1,0331,0049911,0281,037987Business Tax222248181185156201Personal Tax763682726728670531Benefits & Credits169164154157153154Corporate1,7601,4771,6471,5661,6291,595HMRC3,9473,5753,6993,6643,6453,468 HMRC has not yet published accounts for 2015/16. FTE staff  09/1010/1111/1212/1313/1414/1515/16Enforcement and Compliance26,86425,47525,33426,60126,92326,22326,798Business Tax3,7763,8773,6953,4103,1604,4154,582Personal Tax27,30725,97526,85824,44420,55814,94915,661Benefits & Credits6,3075,8345,3015,1574,9835,1935,459Corporates6,4455,7205,2794,8656,3766,3587,356HMRC*70,69966,88166,46764,47761,37057,13859,856*this total for HMRC includes Civil Service Resourcing.  The question mentions specific teams within HMRC and those teams are within the Business Areas above, as follows:Large Business – Business TaxCompliance Unit – Enforcement and ComplianceTransfer Pricing Unit – Business TaxBusiness International – Business TaxAnti-money laundering – Enforcement and Compliance HMRC does not publish accounts information at a level of detail that includes expenditure or allocations by specific teams.

Advance Pricing Agreements

Tulip Siddiq: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many advance pricing arrangements (APAs) were agreed between companies and his Department in each year since 2009-10; how many such arrangements resulted in a (a) positive and (b) negative yield to the Exchequer; what the net amount raised by these APAs was in each such year; and how many APAs were annulled by HM Revenue and Customs in each such year.

Tulip Siddiq: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many transfer pricing cases have been opened with HM Revenue and Customs' transfer pricing unit in each year since 2008-09; how many such cases have been closed in each such year; and how much was raised in each such year.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) publishes annual statistics reporting its performance across its transfer pricing work, including enquiries, advance pricing agreements, advance thin capitalisation agreements and mutual agreement procedure cases. The most recent published statistics are for 2013- 14. HMRC intends to publish the statistics for 2014-15 shortly. These statistics answer many of the individual questions asked. However, HMRC does not hold information centrally in a form which allows it to answer all the questions asked in the required timeframe. The aim of the Advance Pricing Arrangements (APA) Programme is to provide businesses with certainty on the pricing of complex intra-group transactions. An APA sets out the method for determining, in accordance with the law, the transfer price for intra-group transactions. APAs are part of the internationally recognised best practices recommended by the OECD. HMRC has published guidance about what APAs are, the circumstances where it would be appropriate for businesses to apply for an APA and what information is required before any agreement can be made.

Taxation

Tulip Siddiq: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the tax gap was for (a) income tax, (b) national insurance contributions and (c) capital gains tax in each year since 2009-10.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs published its latest tax gap estimates on 22 October 2015 in Measuring tax gaps 2015 edition, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/470540/HMRC-measuring-tax-gaps-2015-1.pdf. The total tax gap for Income Tax, National Insurance Contributions and Capital Gains Tax for the years from 2009-10 to 2013-14 is set out in Table 1.3 (page 18). Separate estimates for each of these three components are not available.

Soft Drinks: Taxation

Will Quince: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department plans to set target levels of reformulation for soft drinks manufacturers under the soft drinks industry levy.

Damian Hinds: The Chancellor announced at Budget 2016 that the soft drinks industry levy will be charged on drinks with added sugar and a total sugar content above 5g/100ml, with a higher charge for drinks with more than 8g/100ml of sugar. These sugar thresholds provide a strong incentive for companies to reformulate and are set to give industry certainty over the next two years. If companies reformulate their products, as many already have, then they will pay less. But it is up to companies how they respond to the levy.

Soft Drinks: Taxation

Will Quince: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will include a time limit in the terms of the soft drinks industry levy such that that levy would cease to apply if reformulation targets are met by soft drinks manufacturers.

Damian Hinds: There is no plan to include a time limit in the terms of the soft drinks industry levy, but the Chancellor keeps all taxes under review as part of the Budget process.

Multinational Companies: Annual Reports

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what timeline he has set for all multinational companies operating in the UK to publish country-by-country reporting; and how that requirement will be enforced.

Mr David Gauke: The UK initiated the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) work on country-by-country (CbC) reporting by large multinationals to tax authorities. The UK was one of the first countries to commit to the OECD model of CbC reporting with legislation in Finance Act 2015, and regulations were laid on 26 February 2016 setting the details of implementation in the UK, which apply to accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2016. The UK together with 30 countries has signed the OECD Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) to exchange CbC reports.The Chancellor has recently pressed the case for public CbC reporting on a multilateral basis. On 12 April 2016 the European Commission published a legislative proposal for public CbC reporting by large multinationals. The UK welcomes this work as a step in the right direction towards new international rules for greater public transparency.

Taxation

Frank Field: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the proportion of gross income of the top one per cent income bracket which people in that bracket paid in (a) direct and (b) indirect tax in the most recent financial year for which data is available; and what proportion those sums are of gross national income in that same period.

Greg Hands: Statistics on the percentage of gross income paid in direct and indirect taxes by household income quintile are produced as part of the Office for National Statistics publication ‘The Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income’, which can be found here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/theeffectsoftaxesandbenefitsonhouseholdincome/2015-06-29 The latest release shows that in the financial year ending 2014, the top household income quintile paid 24% and 11% of gross income in direct and indirect taxes respectively. It is not possible to identify the share of direct and indirect taxes paid by the top 1% of households using this data. However, data on the share of total income tax receipts paid by the top 1% of earners can be found in HM Revenue and Customs’ ‘Income Tax statistics and distributions’ publication, which can be found here:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/income-tax-statistics-and-distributions

Developing Countries: Tax Avoidance

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that UK corporate tax rules do not incentivise companies to avoid tax in developing countries.

Mr David Gauke: The Government is committed to making sure multinational enterprises pay their share of tax. The UK has been at the forefront of multilateral action through the G20 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to reform the international tax rules. We used our Presidency of the G8 in 2013 to successfully initiate the G20-OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. The final recommendations were published by the OECD in October 2015, and endorsed by the G20 leaders in November 2015. The BEPS project represents major and unprecedented efforts. The international project involved over 60 countries, including developing countries, to work together on an equal footing to better align the taxation of profits with economic activity and value creation. The UK has been a leader on implementing the BEPS outputs – we have adopted the OECD country-by-country reporting template; and, at Budget 2016, the UK announced that it would be the first country to act on the OECD recommended rules on interest deductibility. The UK will continue to participate in international efforts to address BEPS by participating in the OECD’s inclusive framework to monitor implementation, which also involves developing countries, and in work to develop toolkits to assist developing countries implementing the BEPS outcomes.

Tax Avoidance: Private Sector

Paul Blomfield: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take to ensure that private sector companies are responsible for their off-payroll workers who use personal service companies paying the correct amount of tax.

Greg Hands: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is continuing to tighten rules on personal service companies and off-payroll workers. For example, it has successfully used Managed Service Company legislation to tackle tax avoidance involving personal service companies and intends to pursue people behind the schemes for tax debts. The 2016 Budget announced changes to improve the effectiveness of the intermediaries rules in the public sector. HMRC is also developing, with stakeholders, a new online tool for the public and private sectors to provide greater certainty about the tax rules.

Individual Savings Accounts

Julian Knight: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when Lifetime ISAs will be available to the public.

Julian Knight: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take to offer public financial advice on Lifetime ISAs.

Mr David Gauke: The new Lifetime ISA will provide savers with the flexibility to save towards a first home and retirement at the same time. From April 2017, people aged 18 to 40 will be able to save up to £4,000 each year into a Lifetime ISA and receive a 25% bonus from the Government. The Government is engaging with the industry on the detail of implementation, regulation and advice on the Lifetime ISA. Further details will be announced when the Government brings forward legislation to enact the Lifetime ISA in the autumn.

Insolvency

Nigel Mills: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff at HM Revenue and Customs work on insolvency procedures.

Mr David Gauke: Within HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) debt management teams in Worthing and Edinburgh are responsible for initiating insolvency actions where other attempts to recover sums due have been unsuccessful. A third team at Newcastle lodges HMRC’s claims in insolvencies. The total number of staff engaged on insolvency work in HMRC’s debt management offices is 258.

Insolvency

Nigel Mills: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much HM Revenue and Customs has received related to insolvency procedures in each of the last five years.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) only holds information about dividends paid for each of the last two years. In 2014/15 a total of £70.6m was received. In 2015/16 the figure was £74.5m. These figures represent dividends paid after a company or individual has been made insolvent. HMRC also receives payments in response to the initiation of insolvency proceedings and these payments are sometimes sufficient to allow HMRC to withdraw the proceedings. Data is not available about the amount received by way of these payments.

Individual Savings Accounts: Occupational Pensions

Julian Knight: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether it is his Department's policy that employees should be offered the choice of either auto-enrolment or paying into a Lifetime ISA as a means for saving for their pension, or that employees who wish to invest in a Lifetime ISA must do so in addition to auto-enrolment.

Greg Hands: The new Lifetime ISA is an additional flexible savings product which will complement pensions to give savers greater freedom and choice to save for the long-term in a way that works for them. With automatic enrolment already helping nine million people with their pensions, the Government remains committed to supporting people who save in different ways. Increasing the choice of savings products available, the Lifetime ISA supports the Government’s ambition to encourage a regular savings habit amongst young people and to create a culture of long-term saving by offering the right products to suit their changing circumstances at different points in their lives. From April 2017, people aged 18 to 40 will be able to save up to £4,000 each year into a Lifetime ISA and receive a 25% bonus from the Government. Under the new Lifetime ISA, young savers will no longer have to choose between saving for their first home purchase or for retirement.

Insolvency

Nigel Mills: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost was to HM Revenue and Customs related to insolvency procedures in each of the last five years.

Mr David Gauke: The amount spent by HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) debt management offices in Worthing, Edinburgh and Newcastle on staff costs and insolvency expenses (e.g. court fees and payments to insolvency practitioners) was £32,594,200 in 2012/13, £26,337,346 in 2013/14, £30,295,668 in 2014/15 and £28,171,282 in 2015/16. Full data is not available for 2011/12. Across HMRC there are other staff working on specialist areas of insolvency but in the time available we cannot provide details of numbers or cost.

Revenue and Customs: Credit

Nigel Mills: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many times HM Revenue and Customs has been a creditor in the last five years.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is a creditor of anyone who has a tax debt. We do not have complete information about the number of debtors who have owed money to HMRC in the past five years.

Department for Energy and Climate Change

Department of Energy and Climate Change: Dairy Products

Nick Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what proportion of dairy products procured for her Department was sourced from British producers in the latest period for which figures are available.

Andrea Leadsom: I refer the rt. hon. Member to the answer given to him by my hon. Friend the Minister of State for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs today to Question 35061: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-04-21/35061/.

Heating

Matthew Pennycook: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what plans she has to establish a cross-government team on the deployment of renewable and low-carbon heating.

Andrea Leadsom: The Department actively engages with other Government departments, including at ministerial level, on a range of interdepartmental groups engaged in reducing emissions from heating and working towards our renewable energy targets.

Electricity Generation

Nigel Adams: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, when her Department intends to publish its report on the whole system costs of different sources and methods of low-carbon and renewable energy generation.

Andrea Leadsom: Following peer review by experts in the field of whole system impacts, DECC will publish the methodology report of the Whole System Impacts of Electricity Generation Technologies project in due course, taking into account timing restrictions relating to purdah(s). The report sets out a comprehensive framework to define whole system impacts and their components and drivers, which can be applied to conventional, low-carbon and renewable large- and small-scale technologies.

Electricity Generation

Nigel Adams: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that ancillary services, including black start, are available to the national grid following the removal of coal-fired power stations from the system; and who will be responsible for providing those services.

Andrea Leadsom: National Grid ancillary services, including Black Start, are procured from generators that have the capability to meet the service requirements. National Grid assesses the suitability of different technologies from a Black Start perspective on an ongoing basis and any generator technology can be considered as a Black Start provider. As we drive forward our decarbonisation strategy, DECC is working with National Grid to ensure that the Black Start strategy remains resilient and cost effective. Part of this work includes National Grid assessing which new technologies may be suitable for Black Start in the future and engaging these providers to understand the feasibility of achieving this.National Grid is also investigating alternative approaches to the Black Start strategy and is taking forward the recommendations of two independent consultant reports commissioned in 2015. Both reports are available on the Energy Networks Associations’ website via the Smarter Networks Portal..

Biofuels

Nigel Adams: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment her Department has made of the case for including (a) biomass energy and (b) biomass conversions from former coal-fired stations alongside offshore wind in future Contract for Difference auctions; and what assessment has been made of the case for evaluating bids in such auctions on a whole system costs basis.

Andrea Leadsom: Biomass can be used as a feedstock in Dedicated Biomass with CHP, Advanced Conversion Technologies and Anaerobic Digestion plants. Those three technologies are already eligible to compete alongside offshore wind in the CFD allocation pot for “less established” technologies. The Government will consider whether it is appropriate for biomass conversions to compete alongside offshore wind or the allocation pot for “established” technologies in due course. DECC recognises the importance of considering the whole system impacts (both costs and benefits) of different electricity technologies when formulating future government policy, since it is a crucial element in delivering secure, clean and affordable energy to consumers.

Biofuels

Nigel Adams: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will make an assessment of the feasibility of using biomass conversion and energy generation to mitigate job losses from the closure of coal-fired power stations.

Andrea Leadsom: Reducing our reliance on coal generation is an important part of decarbonising the electricity system. The Capacity Market will ensure continued security of supply while the Contract for Difference scheme will support cost effective low carbon electricity; the new investment brought forward by both schemes will help create new jobs.

Renewable Energy

Nigel Adams: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what consideration her Department has given to the implications of whole-system costs of different forms of renewable energy generation (a) generally and (b) in future Contract for Difference auctions.

Andrea Leadsom: DECC recognises the importance of considering the whole system impacts (both costs and benefits) of different electricity technologies when formulating future government policy, since it is a crucial element in delivering secure, clean and affordable energy to consumers. In order to continue to improve its evidence base in this area and inform future policy developments, DECC commissioned Frontier Economics to undertake a project on the Whole System Impacts of Electricity Generation Technologies. The core aim of the project was to set out a comprehensive framework to define whole system impacts and their components and drivers, which can be applied to conventional, low-carbon and renewable large- and small-scale technologies. Following peer review by experts in the field of whole system impacts, DECC will publish the resulting methodology report in due course, taking into account timing restrictions relating to purdah(s). Subsequently, the theoretical framework will be used to further systematise DECC’s modelling capability. Given the complex modelling involved and the need for a rigorous quality assurance process to ensure the analysis is robust, this is currently ongoing. Once the project is completed, DECC will be able to draw on the improved evidence base developed through this project to contribute to informing future electricity market policy development, including for CFDs. Given that the electricity system continues to evolve, it is important that DECC reaches well-evidenced and robust long-term solutions.

Biofuels

Dr Paul Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she is taking to promote the development of biomass technologies.

Andrea Leadsom: Support is provided for biomass under a range of renewable financial incentives: the Renewables Obligation (RO), Feed in Tariff (FIT), Contracts for Difference (CfD) and Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). The RO closed to co-firing and conversions last year and any future support will be via CfD. The government announced it will hold three auctions for Contracts for Difference of up to £730 million this Parliament. Details of the future CFD allocation rounds will be published in due course. The Government confirmed increased funding for the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme in November 2015 as part of the Spending Review, with the annual budget rising from £430m in 2015/16 to £1.15bn in 2020/21. The Government has successfully supported innovation in biomass technologies such as through the Energy Technology Institute, the Research Councils, Innovate UK and in partnership with other European Countries through the Bioenergy Sustaining the Future (BESTF) network.

Tidal Power: Marine Animals

Richard Benyon: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what data her Department holds on the number of (a) seals, (b) cetaceans and (c) other marine species killed by tidal energy installations.

Andrea Leadsom: The monitoring of the impacts of tidal energy installations is a requirement of marine licences issued by the relevant body for such infrastructure.

Nuclear Power Stations

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what progress has been made on the techno-economic assessment of small modular reactors which was due to conclude at the end of March 2016.

Andrea Leadsom: The techno-economic assessment of small modular reactors is due to conclude shortly. Once the assessment is complete officials will consider the key findings as part of on-going SMR policy development

Renewable Energy

Dr Paul Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies on green energy of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Andrea Leadsom: The UK is already playing its part in delivering the Paris climate deal, through its contribution to meeting EU climate and energy targets and through its domestic climate framework set out in the Climate Change Act. In addition, the Government believes we need to take the step of enshrining the global goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions into UK law. As a first step, our independent advisors, the Committee on Climate Change, are looking at the implications of the Paris commitments. The Committee has said that it will report in the autumn, and we will consider carefully the recommendations.

Wind Power: Scotland

Dr Paul Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she is taking to support the development of offshore wind energy generation in Scotland.

Andrea Leadsom: The Government has announced up to £730 million of CFD support for offshore wind and other less established technologies. The first auction which we intend to hold later this year will offer £290 million of support and we would expect developers of Scottish projects to bid into that auction. This is a huge opportunity, so I have been encouraging developers and supply chain companies to make the industrialisation of the UK supply chain happen.

Offshore Industry

Dr Paul Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she is taking to increase exploration for oil and gas in the North Sea.

Andrea Leadsom: In January the Prime Minister announced a package of new measures to increase exploration for oil and gas in the North Sea. This included £20m of additional funding for seismic surveys, a £1m prize fund to maximise use of the 2015 seismic surveys and £700k funding for new 3D visualisation centre at Heriot Watt University.   This builds upon previous fiscal measures and seismic funding made by this government to ensure the UK Continental Shelf remains an attractive destination for investment - safeguarding the future of this vital national asset.

Hinkley Point C Power Station

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policy on the building of a nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point C of the finding of the UN Economic and Social Council in the Report of the Implementation Committee on its thirty-fifth session, page 21, that the UK is in non-compliance with its obligations to examine the potential adverse transboundary impacts of an accident at any new nuclear plant constructed in the UK.

Andrea Leadsom: Compliance with international obligations is something we take very seriously. The proposed recommendations published by the Implementation Committee are still subject to adoption by the Meeting of the Parties to the Espoo Convention at their next meeting which is due to take place in June 2017. We are confident that we have met the relevant international requirements in relation to Hinkley Point C, however we will consider the Implementation Committee’s report in advance of the meeting.

Tidal Power

Mr David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assistance she plans to provide for the development of tidal stream power technology.

Andrea Leadsom: That the UK has deployed the world’s first commercial scale tidal stream turbine MCT SeaGen, a 1.2MW project.The world’s first multi-turbine tidal stream array, MeyGen 1A, received £10m in DECC innovation funding and will be deployed in the UK this year.We are looking at what more we can do to support these developing technologies.

Hinkley Point C Power Station

Mr Douglas Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will make it her policy to renegotiate with EDF the strike  price for Hinkley Point C power station.

Andrea Leadsom: Hinkley Point C is a good deal for consumers – it will provide reliable energy at an affordable cost, powering nearly six million homes for around 60 years and creating more than 25,000 jobs.Today nuclear provides around 16% of our electricity but these ageing plants won’t go on forever. Therefore the Government is committed to our policy of building new nuclear in the interest of energy security, decarbonisation and keeping costs down for the consumer.

Energy: Competition

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she plans to take to improve the effectiveness of the energy supply market for businesses.

Andrea Leadsom: We want to see even more competition to keep energy costs down for businesses.The Competition and Markets Authority has already published some suggestions such as requiring suppliers to publish tariffs online and making switching easier for businesses on auto-rollover contracts.We are looking forward to the CMA’s final report and are committed to implementing their recommendations.

Cabinet Office

Companies: Ownership

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether it is his policy is on forcing overseas territories to publish public registers of beneficial ownership.

Matthew Hancock: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

UK Membership of EU: Referendums

Royston Smith: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 4 May 2016 to Question 35770, what technical and practical barriers will prevent the Electoral Commission implementing a registration look-up tool before the EU referendum.

John Penrose: As required by legislation, all applications to register to vote are assessed by Local Authority Electoral Registration Officers (EROs). There are around 360 EROs across the UK. EROs manage and maintain separate electoral registers for their areas on a variety of different software platforms. A national registration look-up tool would require access to all of these locally held and owned electoral registers, and, if it required the creation of a central national database, could require legislative changes and raise significant data protection concerns.

Anti-corruption Summit

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish a list of people who attended the Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May 2016.

Matthew Hancock: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Anti-corruption Summit

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will take steps to ensure that the commitments made at the Anti-Corruption Summit (a) are ambitious, (b) are specific, (c) include a timeframe for implementation and (d) are enforceable.

Matthew Hancock: Yes.

Anti-corruption Summit

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish a list of the commitments negotiated at the Anti-Corruption Summit of 12 May 2016 after that summit has taken place.

Matthew Hancock: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Anti-corruption Ministerial Group

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, who sits on the Inter-Ministerial Group on Corruption.

Matthew Hancock: A full list of members of the Inter-Ministerial Group on Corruption is published on the GOV.UK website.

Anti-corruption Ministerial Group

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the budget is for the Inter-Ministerial Group on Corruption.

Matthew Hancock: Budget for work to tackle corruption are held by departments. The work of the Inter-Ministerial Group is to co-ordinate and lead departmental activity.

Anti-corruption Summit

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2016 to Question 36373, which overseas territories and Crown dependencies have declined the invitation to attend the Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May 2016.

Matthew Hancock: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Voluntary Work: Young People

Jess Phillips: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many 16 and 17 year olds from (a) West Midlands and (b) Birmingham Yardley have participated in the National Citizen Service in each year since it was piloted in 2011.

Mr Rob Wilson: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Homicide: Merseyside

Conor McGinn: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many homicides were recorded by police in (a) Merseyside and (b) St Helens in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013, (v) 2014 and (vi) 2015.

Mr Rob Wilson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.



UKSA Letter to Member - Homicides
(PDF Document, 103.79 KB)

Public Sector: Procurement

Sir Henry Bellingham: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many public procurement contracts were won by small and medium-sized businesses in North West Norfolk in the last five years.

Matthew Hancock: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Public Sector: Procurement

Sir Henry Bellingham: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many small and medium-sized businesses in North West Norfolk placed a bid on a public contract in the last two years.

Matthew Hancock: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

UK Membership of EU: Referendums

Mr Bernard Jenkin: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what (a) the cost to the public purse has been of and (b) advice he has sought or received from the Electoral Commission on Government plans to promote public awareness of the (i) forthcoming EU referendum and (ii) need for timely registration in order to participate in that referendum.

John Penrose: The referendum on membership of the European Union is a decision of fundamental importance for the future of the country. The Government is committed to helping ensure that everyone who is eligible to vote in this referendum is able to do so.The Electoral Commission’s public awareness campaign plays an essential role in explaining to the electorate the importance of registering to vote. As it has done previously ahead of the 2015 General Election, the Government aims to complement and amplify the Electoral Commission’s work to maximise the number of people reached by voter registration communications to ensure that electors can have their say on 23 June. The Government will allocate up to £7.5m for a range of voter registration activity, including funding local authorities and civil society organisations.The Electoral Commission and Cabinet Office have been in regular dialogue on encouraging voter registration.

Anti-corruption Summit

Mark Menzies: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies have been invited to the UK Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May 2016.

Matthew Hancock: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Antibiotics: Drug Resistance

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for (a) Health and (b) International Development on implementation of the Independent Review on Antimicrobial Resistance.

Matthew Hancock: In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of ministerial discussions are not normally disclosed.

Civil Servants: Training

Louise Haigh: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of Civil Service Fast Stream employees based in London complete a placement outside London.

Matthew Hancock: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Chernobyl

Paul Flynn: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Civil Contingencies Unit has made an assessment of the current levels of radioactive contamination existing in upland areas across the UK as a result of radioactive fallout in May 1986 following the Chernobyl nuclear accident in April 1986.

Matthew Hancock: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Broadband

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to publish responses to the Broadband Universal Service Obligation consultation.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The Government intends to publish its response to the broadband Universal Service Obligation consultation shortly, and a copy will be placed in the House Library.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport: Written Questions

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of named day written parliamentary questions have been answered after the specified date by each Minister in his Department since May 2015.

Mr Edward Vaizey: In an oral evidence session to the House of Commons Procedure Committee on 27th April it was noted by the Minister for Sport that though the department had experienced a dip in its performance for timeliness of answers to written questions since May 2015, there has also been a significant improvement in performance in recent months. The Table shows Named Day responses from 27th May 2015 to 29th April 2016:  MinisterNamed Day Questions answeredNumber of Late Named Day QuestionsThe Minister for Culture321146The Minister for Sport10930

Broadband

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many voucher codes have been issued to date under the satellite broadband subsidy scheme; and for what proportion of those codes has installation been completed.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The Basic Broadband Scheme comprises two schemes running in parallel: the main scheme is administered by the Local Authorities and BT using only satellite suppliers; and the second supplementary scheme is administered by BDUK and uses fixed wireless suppliers as well as satellite suppliers. These schemes form part of the Government's commitment to ensure that every home and business in the UK has access to a broadband service of at least 2 Mbps.On the main scheme, there have been 2774 successful applications for codes, with 278 going on to place orders. On the supplementary scheme, there has been 1171 successful applications for codes, with 282 going on to place orders.

Broadband

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which suppliers are approved to install the service offered under the satellite broadband subsidy scheme; and what regulation those suppliers are subject to from BT on installation procedure.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Suppliers for the main scheme are as follows: www.ibub.co.uk/satellitescheme/www.europasat.com/lp/bduk-national/www.broadbandwherever.net/BDUKhttp://www.primetech-bduk.co.ukwww.digiweb.com/satellite/http://avonlinebroadband.com/broadband-vouchers/www.corsat.co.uk/bduk/www.ruralbroadband.co.uk/bdukwww.notspotbroadband.com/grant-schemes/http://toowayinfo.bentleywalker.com/bduk/ Suppliers for the supplementary scheme (which include fixed wireless providers) are as follows:http://www.voip-unlimited.net/airwave-home/http://www.juice-broadband.com/http://lothianbroadband.com/https://6ginternet.com/subsidyhttps://www.wessexinternet.com/https://wispire.co.uk/www.ruralbroadband.co.uk/www.quickline.co.uk/www.notspotbroadband.com/www.avonlinebroadband.com/http://www.symmetris.co.uk/www.bentley-walker.com/http://b4rn.org.uk/www.europasat.com/http://www.securewebservices.co.uk/www.satelliteinternet.co.uk/www.digiweb.com/satellite/www.broadbandwherever.net/homeThe suppliers on the main scheme are contracted by BT as being able to provide satellite products through BT Wholesale. BT only contracts with suppliers who are able to demonstrate that they have a competent network of installers who are able to meet installation standards set out as part of the contract terms between supplier and BT.

Broadband

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he plans to take to address installation issues arising from the satellite broadband subsidy scheme.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Customers can report any installation issues to the supplier, BT or BDUK. BT and BDUK work with suppliers to ensure that any customer issues are addressed.

BBC Worldwide

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the contribution was to the public purse of BBC Worldwide in 2015.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Profits from BBC Worldwide are returned to the BBC. The BBC will publish its annual report and accounts for 2015 outlining the contribution BBC Worldwide has made in that financial year in due course. In the 2014/15 annual report the income the BBC received from Worldwide was £851.3million.

Broadband

David Mackintosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that Ofcom implements the recommendations from its Strategic Review of Digital Communications, published in February 2016, on automatic compensation for mobile and broadband customers for loss of internet connection.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The Government fully supports Ofcom’s plans to implement a system of automatic compensation for telecommunications customers who suffer a loss or reduction of their broadband services. This is in line with Ofcom’s remit to, amongst other things, protect the interests of end users. The Department anticipates that Ofcom will, in due course, define the specific parameters of the automatic compensation requirements that it will impose, and DCMS will liaise with it during this process.

Broadband

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the £1.7 billion funding for the Superfast Broadband Programme is from (a) central government (b) local government and (c) the EU.

Mr Edward Vaizey: From the £1.7 billion funding for the Superfast Broadband programme around £780 million is from central government, £740 million is from local government and £200 million is from the EU.

House of Commons Commission

House of Commons Annunciator System: Internet

Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Rt. hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, if the Commission will make information on the House of Commons annunciator available online in real time.

Tom Brake: The House is currently completing a procurement process to replace the software system which enables publication of information on the annunciator service. The solution has been specified in such a way that the data will be available in an open format. The information will be published in real time and made available to connected devices.

Department of Health

Drugs: Wholesale Trade

Charlotte Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to increase competition in the pharmaceutical wholesale market.

George Freeman: The United Kingdom has an active and diverse licensed wholesale dealing market for medicinal products for human use which is regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. It is up to individual companies to submit such licence applications. If there is concern with anti-competiveness, this should be referred to the Competition and Markets Authority.

Department of Health: Hotels

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of hotel bookings his Department made for its (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison: The Department implemented the Crown Commercial Services solution for travel awarded to Redfern Ltd on 1 July 2012 with all information taken from that system. Hotel bookings prior to that date were facilitated via an alternative provider with the information requested not being readily available. Total spend on hotel bookings by financial year broken down by Ministers, special advisers and all officials is in the table below split by overseas and United Kingdom arrangements. Table 1 REDFERN TRAVEL LTD*July 2012-20132013-20142014-20152015-2016Grand TotalHotels Accommodation (Overseas) Total of which:£19,771£36,941£86,181£72,738£215,631Minister£153£223£808 £1,184Official£19,618£36,718£85,306£72,738£214,380Special Adviser  £67 £67  Hotels Accommodation (UK) Total of which:£242,946£369,386£319,169£272,203£1,203,703Minister£118£1,491£747£312£2,667Official£242,828£367,895£318,337£271,785£1,200,845Special Adviser  £85£107£192Grand Total -UK and Overseas£262,717£406,326£405,350£344,941£1,419,334 Expenditure information taken from the Department’s I-Expenses system, Table 2, contains hotel costs incurred by officials that was later reimbursed. There are no hotel transactions relating to Ministers or special advisers within the system however additional information on expenses for Ministers and special advisers may exist where claimed via the manual expense claim form (EXP1). Investigation of this source to identify costs associated with hotels would incur disproportionate costs.Table 2I-EXPENSESThis covers Accommodation UK and overseas for all staff. *No Ministers or Special Adviser costsSum of Amount  Financial YearExpense TypeTotal2012-13130 Hotels Accommodation (UK)£15,861 131 Hotels Accommodation (Overseas)£14,1282012-13 Total £29,9902013-14 £18,1232014-15130 Hotels Accommodation (UK)£8,252 131 Hotels Accommodation (Overseas)£12,1072014-15 Total £20,3582015-16130 Hotels Accommodation (UK)£4,933 131 Hotels Accommodation (Overseas)£6,9182015-16 Total £11,851Grand Total £80,322

Agency Nurses: East Midlands

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much (a) Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and (b) Nottingham University Hospitals spent on agency nurses in the last three financial years.

Alistair Burt: This information is not available centrally. Information about spending on agency nurses by Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust may be obtained from the Trust. As it is a foundation trust, we have written to Sean Lyons, Chair of the Trust, informing him of the hon. Member’s enquiry. He will reply shortly and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library.Information about spending on agency nurses by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust may be held locally by the Trust. The hon. Member may wish to approach them directly with this query.

Heart Diseases

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce variation across the UK in access to surgical and transcatheter interventions for heart valve disease.

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of patients in the UK with undiagnosed heart valve disease in the last year for which data is available.

Jane Ellison: NHS England is working with professionals across the healthcare system to look at ways in which services and outcomes for patients with heart valve disease can be improved further, for example, by encouraging practitioners to follow clinical guidelines.Service specifications and policy for the surgical and interventional treatment of heart valve disease are published by NHS England’s Cardiothoracic Clinical Reference Group. These define what NHS England expects to be in place in order for providers to offer evidence-based, safe and effective services. NHS England is working on the next iteration of the specifications, which will include important standards relating to mitral valve surgery.In addition, NHS England is holding a clinical summit on 15 June 2016, which will bring together cardiologists and cardiac surgeons to examine the issues relating to heart valve disease, including variation. Outputs from discussions will be used to inform the future commissioning approach within specialised commissioning.Information on the number of people with an undiagnosed heart valve condition is not collected centrally.

Care Homes: Finance

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent representations he has received from care home operators about their financial viability.

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent representations he has received from care home operators in West Sussex about their future financial viability.

Alistair Burt: The Government continues to engage with the care sector, including care providers, to understand their concerns about their financial viability and the sustainability of services. The trade bodies Care England and the United Kingdom Home Care Association have convened a provider Taskforce, with membership from the larger care home and home care operators and representatives from the Care Providers Alliance. Officials from the Department of Health, and other Government departments attend the taskforce meetings as observers. The most recent meeting was held on 9 May 2016, where discussions were held about risks to financial viability, local authority commissioning and the impact of the introduction of the National Living Wage. The Department is working closely with the Local Government Association to consider targeted action to address the issues. The Department is not aware of any specific representations from care home providers in West Sussex about their future financial viability.

Electronic Cigarettes: Advertising

Mrs Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of restricting advertising on e-cigarettes on people using tobacco products.

Jane Ellison: The best thing a smoker can do for their health is to quit smoking. We know that there are now over a million people who have completely replaced smoking with e-cigarettes and that the evidence indicates that they are significantly less harmful to health than smoking.Whilst the Government recognises the potential benefits of e-cigarettes, the quality of products on the market remains variable. It is right therefore that proportionate regulation is introduced to introduce minimum standards for safety and quality of all e-cigarettes and e-liquids and that information is provided to consumers so that they can make informed choices. This is the aim of the regulatory framework set out in the revised Tobacco Products Directive.The Impact Assessment that accompanied the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 assessed the expected impact of the advertising provisions on demand for e-cigarettes to be insubstantial. There is already a very high awareness of e-cigarettes and their role in replacing tobacco use amongst the public. The restrictions on advertising in certain media do not prevent businesses communicating, factually, directly to individual smokers or ex-smokers about their products, either in physical stores or internet pages under their control.The restrictions do not prevent the publication of independently compiled reviews or discussion between users and potential users in internet forums. A balance is therefore struck between reducing exposure of children to imagery and marketing of these products and providing sufficient information to smokers wishing to use these products to support them in quit attempts.

HIV Infection: Drugs

Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons NHS England is reconsidering its positioning on commissioning pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV.

Jane Ellison: NHS England decided to reconsider its decision in relation to the commissioning of pre-exposure prophylaxis following questions concerning interpretation of powers to commission HIV prevention services being raised by some stakeholders.

Pregnancy: Screening

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies on the introduction of cell-free DNA non-invasive prenatal testing of the finding of the report of the Pro-Life APPG, Abortion on the grounds of disability, published in July 2013, that many parents feel steered towards abortion on receiving a diagnosis of fetal abnormality and that they do not receive adequate information about other options.

Jane Ellison: There is a long established Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme (NHS FASP) that prospective parents can choose whether to participate in. The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has recommended that non-invasive prenatal testing for Down’s syndrome should be introduced as an additional test into the NHS FASP as part of an evaluation. Ministers are currently considering this important recommendation from the UK NSC which would give pregnant women and their partners more accurate information and should reduce the number of women having to undergo unnecessary invasive testing which carries a risk of miscarriage. The UK NSC recommendation does not change the offer to prospective parents of participating in the programme, nor the options and choices available when testing identifies a fetus with Down’s, Edwards’ or Patau’s syndrome. Existing guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists already makes it clear that women and their partners should receive appropriate information and support from a properly trained multidisciplinary team, who must adopt a supportive and non-judgemental approach regardless of whether the decision is to terminate or continue the pregnancy. This should include referral to other professional experts (including palliative care) and referral for counselling when this can help, as part of a co-ordinated package of care.

Musculoskeletal Disorders

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many individuals with musculoskeletal conditions have (a) been offered patient education programmes and (b) attended patient education programmes.

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the effect of early health interventions on reducing work disability in patients with long-term musculoskeletal conditions.

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support his Department provides to people with long-term musculoskeletal conditions in the workplace.

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost to the UK economy is of people with musculoskeletal conditions being out of work as a result of their conditions.

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of how the Government, as a public sector employer and commissioner, can increase employment for people with long-term musculoskeletal conditions.

Jane Ellison: Data concerning the number of individuals who have been offered or who have attended patient education programmes is not collected. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance on osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) recommends that patients should be offered patient education programmes, if appropriate. The first annual report of the national clinical audit of rheumatoid and early inflammatory arthritis, published on 22 January 2016, identifies that most services offer prompt educational support.Whilst the Department has no specific information in relation to early intervention in musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions reducing work related disability, earlier treatment of RA and OA can help reduce symptoms and improve mobility. The NICE RA Quality Standard specifically recommends that people with suspected RA are assessed in a rheumatology service within three weeks of referral. This is because once an RA diagnosis has been made, patients can be considered for anti-TNF drugs which can significantly reduce progression of disease. The OA Quality Standard states that core treatments for osteoarthritis should include physical activity and exercise, as well as weight loss advice, if appropriate.Information concerning the cost to the United Kingdom economy of people with MSK conditions being out of work as a result of their conditions is not collected by the Department, though there are a number of studies that have sought to estimate such costs. The NICE guideline on RA and OA both contain such estimates, with the former stating that the total costs of RA in the UK, including indirect costs and work related disability, have been estimated at between £3.8 billion and £4.75 billion per year, and the latter stating that in 1999-2000, 36 million working days were lost due to OA alone, at an estimated cost of £3.2 billion in lost production. Both sets of NICE guidance can be found at the following links:www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg177/resources/osteoarthritis-care-and-management-35109757272517https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg79/resources/rheumatoid-arthritis-in-adults-management-975636823525The Government is working to increase employment for people with long-term conditions, such as MSK conditions, in a number of ways. The Work and Health Unit, now located in the Department for Work and Pensions, has been established to lead the drive for improving work and health outcomes for people with health conditions and disabilities, as well as improving prevention and support for people absent from work through ill health and those at risk of leaving the workforce. The Unit will seek to do this by improving integration across healthcare and employment services as well as supporting employers to recruit and retain more disabled people and people with long term health conditions.In 2015 the Government launched the Fit for Work scheme which is free and helps employees stay in or return to work. It provides an occupational health assessment and general health and work advice to employees, employers and general practitioners. Fit for Work complements existing occupational health services provided by employers. More information can be found at the following link:www.gov.uk/government/collections/fit-for-work-guidance

General Practitioners: Manchester Withington

Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many full-time GPs have been employed in Manchester, Withington constituency in each year since 2010.

Alistair Burt: The information is not available in the format requested. Information on the total general practitioner (GP) full time equivalents by selected area between 2010 and 2015 is shown in the following table. Table 1   full time equivalents  20102011(1)2012(1)201320142015(3) All GPs 5NTManchester Primary Care Trust (PCT)323305319...01NNHS South Manchester Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)...98989400WNHS Central Manchester CCG...123140113 Q46Greater Manchester Area Team Unknown(2)...188485.Q73NHS England North (Lancashire and Greater Manchester) Unknown(2).....399 GPs (excluding registrars, retainers and locums) 5NTManchester PCT314304318...01NNHS South Manchester CCG...94978700WNHS Central Manchester CCG...123140110 Source: The Health and Social Care Information Centre General and Personal Medical Services Statistics Notes: GP workforce numbers are not available by constituency. Manchester, Withington constituency is contained within and serviced by NHS South Manchester CCG and NHS Central Manchester CCG. Prior to the formation of CCGs the Manchester, Withington constituency was contained within and serviced by Manchester PCT.(1) There were an additional 228 full time equivalent GP Registrars in 2011 and 198 full time equivalent GP Registrars in 2012, training in England and paid via the Electronic Staff Record System (ESR). These ESR records were not included in the annual GP census publication but were included in the Medical and Dental Census.(2) In 2013-2015, there were a number of GP Registrars training in Lancashire and Greater Manchester paid via the Electronic Staff Record system (ESR). The figures shown in the table for these years are full time equivalents but cannot be attributed to a specific CCG within Lancashire and Greater Manchester. Some of these GP Registrars may be working in NHS South Manchester CCG and Central Manchester CCG in 2013-2015.(3) Prior to 2015, figures are sourced from NHAIS GP Payments (Exeter) System. From 2015, figures are sourced from the workforce Minimum Dataset (wMDS) and include estimates for missing data. Figures from 2015 are not comparable with previous years.'.' denotes not applicable.The Health and Social Care Information Centre seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data but responsibility for data accuracy lies with the organisations providing the data. Methods are continually being updated to improve data quality where changes impact on figures already published. This is assessed but unless it is significant at national level figures are not changed. Impact at detailed or local level is footnoted in relevant analyses.

Health Professions: Training

Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many students currently receive the NHS bursary in (a) England and (b) Manchester, Withington constituency.

Ben Gummer: The latest available figures provided by the NHS Business Services Authority show that there were 99,549 students attending a university in England who received an NHS Bursary payment in the financial year 2014/15. Of the students receiving an NHS Bursary payment, 48 provided their current address with a postcode in the Withington constituency of Greater Manchester.

Nurses: Preventive Medicine

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of public health nurses to delivering the prevention agenda in the NHS England Five Year Forward View.

Ben Gummer: Improving population health is the responsibility of every nurse and each has a role in working with individuals, communities and/or the population to prevent illness, protect health and promote wellbeing. The National Health Service Five Year Forward View (FYFV) sets out the need to close the health and wellbeing gap and radically upgrade prevention. The new framework for nurses, midwives and care staff in England, Leading Change, Adding Value, scheduled for publication later this month, sets out how these professionals will support delivery of the FYFV. There are 10 commitments in the framework, of which three are specifically related to population health and prevention. To support all health care professionals including nurses to provide evidence based preventative interventions and measure their impact, Public Health England will be launching a resource called All Our Health later this month.

Nurses

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of public health nursing to (a) improving the health of the population and preventing acute hospital admissions and (b) delivering the Government's commitment to seven-day NHS services.

Ben Gummer: Improving population health is the responsibility of every nurse and they have a role in working with individuals, communities and/or the population to prevent illness, protect health and promote wellbeing. The National Health Service Five Year Forward View (FYFV) sets out the need to close the health and wellbeing gap, radically upgrade prevention as part of a drive to reduce acute hospital admissions, and deliver seven-day hospital services for patients with urgent or emergency care needs. The new framework for nurses, midwives and care staff in England, Leading Change, Adding Value, scheduled for publication later this month, sets out how these professionals will support delivery of the FYFV. There are 10 commitments in the framework, of which three specifically relate to population health and population health and prevention. To support all health care professionals including nurses to provide evidence based preventative interventions and measure their impact, Public Health England will be launching a resource called All Our Health later this month.

Schools: Nurses

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of rising school rolls on the number of school nurse training places required.

Jane Ellison: In April 2014, Public Health England and the Department published guidance to commissioners for services to school aged children, Maximising the school nursing team contribution to the public health of school-aged children.Each year Health Education England (HEE) provide local and national forecasts of the supply that will arise over the next five years and use these forecasts to discuss with stakeholders whether this supply will match the system's view of future demand including the extent to which any current shortages will be addressed. This analysis and discussion is then used to identify whether any changes are required to the volumes of training commissioned by HEE.Consideration of the impact of rising school rolls will feed into HEE’s planning, though the final training settlement for 2017/18 is under negotiation.

Health Services

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that the pricing rules set out in the national tariff guidance take into account the different costs bases of mental and physical healthcare.

Alistair Burt: NHS Improvement sets out local pricing rules in the national tariff which are designed to encourage commissioners and providers to set appropriate prices that reflect local conditions and priorities for services that do not have a national price. This includes mental health and community services. NHS Improvement is leading the cost transformation programme which aims to improve the quality and use of patient-level cost information for all National Health Service funded services. This information will have local and national benefits from helping inform commissioner and provider decision making to setting prices and rules in the national tariff. NHS Improvement has started the process for developing new costing standards for mental health and ambulance services. The draft costing standards for these services is expected to be published in 2017 and the final standards will be published in 2020.

Mental Health Services

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that block contracts are being phased out for mental health services.

Alistair Burt: NHS England and NHS Improvement are introducing changes to the National Tariff that will rule out unaccountable block contracts for adult mental health services that provide poor value for money and do not support the adoption of new models of care. NHS England and NHS Improvement have developed two possible payment models that could be adopted locally - one based on care clusters on an episodic or year of care basis, and the other a capitation-based model. Whichever payment model is adopted for use locally, there should be a strong element that links payment to outcomes, particularly the recommendations arising from the report of the independent Mental Health Taskforce.

Mental Health Services

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will require NHS England to set out commissioning responsibilities for mental healthcare.

Alistair Burt: NHS England has a five-year strategy – the Mental Health “Five Year Forward View” to improve mental health outcomes across the National Health Service, for people of all ages. The Forward View explains how national bodies will work together between now and 2021 to help people have good mental health and make sure they can access evidence-based treatment rapidly when they need it.In relation to commissioning, NHS England has direct commissioning responsibility for a number of specialised mental health services - as set out in regulations. These services include: adult secure in-patient services; in-patient services for children and adolescents; in-patient perinatal services; gender identity services; specialist in-patient services for people who have a mental health illness and are deaf; in- patient services for patients who have eating disorders and some specialist personality disorder in-patient services.The Mental Health Taskforce report – published in February, recommended that NHS England should ensure that by April 2017 population-based budgets are in place, which give clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) or other local partners the opportunity to collaboratively commission the majority of specialised services across the life course.CCGs are responsible for commissioning all other mental health services for both adults and children; working with partners such as local authorities, where appropriate.

Mental Health Services

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether it is a legal requirement that urgent mental health referrals for admission are fully funded.

Alistair Burt: The legal requirement lies with clinical commissioning groups to work with local partners to assess the mental health needs of the community they serve, and to ensure services are commissioned and adequately funded to meet the identified needs. This includes provision of services to respond to people in mental health crisis or who need urgent inpatient mental health care. No one in need of urgent mental health care should be turned away from services while funding responsibilities are decided.

Mental Illness: Employment

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2016 to Question 26065, on mental illness: employment, whether the guidance for businesses on addressing mental health issues has been published.

Alistair Burt: Public Health England and Business in the Community (BITC) have produced a Mental Health Workplace digital toolkit for employers to address mental health issues at work. The toolkit builds on the existing best practice and considers the transferable learning between business sectors and businesses of different sizes. The toolkit will be published on BITC’s website on 16 May 2016 to coincide with the start of 2016 Mental Health Awareness Week.

Social Work: Lancashire

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many students studying social work in Lancashire are in receipt of a bursary.

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many students studying allied health professions in Lancashire are in receipt of an NHS bursary.

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much was spent on NHS bursaries for (a) doctors, (b) nurses and midwives and (c) allied health professionals in each year since 2010.

Ben Gummer: The total cost of NHS bursaries paid to medical, nursing and midwifery and allied health professional (AHP) students in financial years 2010-11 to 2014-15, the latest year for which figures are available, is shown in the following table.   2010-11 £0002011-12 £0002012-13 £0002013-14 £0002014-15 £000Medical19,82619,53020,57321,00120,909Nursing and Midwifery399,366385,371349,453320,586301,307Allied Health Professions50,29650,27552,75955,69758,129Source: NHS Business Services AuthorityNotes: The figures include all bursary elements (Basic Award, allowances and one-off payments) paid directly to students or to 3rd party providers of services for disabled students. Excludes tuition fees paid directly to Higher Education Institutions to meet the tuition fee liability of students studying medicine. During the financial year of 2014-15 there were a total of 90 students studying an AHP course at the University of Central Lancashire who were in receipt of an NHS bursary. It is not possible to separately identify the number of bursary recipients at other AHP course providers in Lancashire, as these are campus based, with information captured as part of the figures for the main site, all of which fall outside of Lancashire. These figures are therefore excluded. During the financial year 2014-15 there were a total of 773 students studying social work at the University of Central Lancashire and at Lancaster University who were in receipt of a social work bursary.

Antibiotics: Drug Resistance

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the role of his Department is planned to be in implementing the recommendations of the Independent Review on Antimicrobial Resistance.

Jane Ellison: The final report of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance is expected shortly. The Department is leading on the cross-departmental response to the report. A group of senior officials has been meeting regularly to ensure the necessary coordination.

Health Professions: Training

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of replacing the NHS bursary with student loans on the number of healthcare students; and what steps he is taking to (a) maintain and (b) increase the number of such students.

Ben Gummer: The Government assessment undertaken to date is that nursing is consistently one of the most popular courses on University Central Administration Service with 57,000 applicants for around 20,000 nursing places in 2014. Midwifery and Allied Health Professional courses receive higher than average applications as well.Health Education England (HEE) funding for healthcare students is currently determined at a local level based on local need and is subject to annual workforce planning. For 2016-17, HEE will fund those commissions set out in the HEE Commissioning and Investment Plan for 2016-17. HEE will set out its plans for 2017/18 training commissions in its next annual Commissioning and Investment Plan or Workforce Plan for England which is expected to be published in December 2016 prior to the start of the financial year.We estimate that this reform will enable universities to provide up to 10,000 additional nursing and other health professional training places this Parliament. This reflects estimates on the level of unmet demand for places in the current system where, as an example, for nursing, around two out of three nursing applicants who currently apply for a place are turned down.Under the reforms full time students will have access to more upfront living cost support, typically 25% or more.A public consultation was published on the 7 April 2016. Preliminary Equalities Impact Analysis and Economic Impact Assessment were published alongside the consultation document.

Diseases: Medical Treatments

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that the NHS England consultation on a proposed method to support investment decisions in specialised commissioning launched on 12 April 2016 does not disadvantage potential treatments for rare diseases.

George Freeman: The consultation on a proposed method to support investment decisions in specialised commissioning closed on 11 May 2016. All responses will now be independently analysed, and NHS England will consider the report before making a final decision on the method to be used by the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) when it meets in June 2016 to look at areas for future investment.In recognition that there may be limited evidence to support proposed treatments for rare conditions, NHS England has proposed that the CPAG may recommend that interventions for rare conditions are funded where there is limited published evidence on clinical effectiveness. CPAG will also be able to seek advice from NHS England’s Rare Diseases Advisory Group - whose membership comprises of both clinicians and patient and public representatives.To ensure people with rare diseases are not disadvantaged, NHS England’s consultation includes an Equality Impact Assessment which explicitly considers the impact of the proposed process on people with rare conditions, and respondents to consultation have been invited to submit their views on this issue.

General Practitioners: Insurance

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with NHS England on reducing medical indemnity costs for GPs.

Alistair Burt: The Department is having ongoing discussions with NHS England to review the way in which indemnity costs in primary care are funded and will bring forward proposals for discussion in July 2016.

General Practitioners: Finance

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department plans to increase the level of funding allocated  for staffing in GP practices.

Alistair Burt: General practitioner (GP) practices are independent businesses and best placed to make the decisions about staffing numbers and skill mix to meet the needs of their patients. Funding for staffing is not allocated separately but forms part of a practice’s core funding allocation. The GP Forward View, published by NHS England on 21 April 2016, sets a commitment to increase overall funding for general practice by £2.4 billion a year by 2020/21. This includes core funding for practices, as well as funding for a range of national programmes to support general practice. As part of this investment, £206 million will fund a programme of measures to increase the general practice workforce.

Ambulance Services: Performance Standards

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the current average response times are for ambulances responding to C1 and C2 incidents.

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the target response times are for ambulances responding to C1 and C2 incidents.

Jane Ellison: Category C1 and category C2 are terms used by London Ambulance Service to describe the first two categories of green calls. Green calls are lower acuity calls where there is still a need for an ambulance, but in slower time scales than life-threatening or more urgent calls. They are usually split into four categories and the response times for these are agreed and set locally. Data on green call performance is not centrally held.

Ambulance Services: Greater London

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many ambulances are currently in service in London; and how many ambulances were in service in London in each of the last five years.

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many vacancies the London Ambulance Service has for paramedics.

Jane Ellison: This information is not held centrally.

Health Professions: Lancashire

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many allied health professionals are working in Lancashire.

Alistair Burt: Information is not available in the format requested. Information showing the numbers of full time equivalent qualified allied health professionals in National Health Service organisations in Lancashire are shown in the following table. NHS Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS): Qualified Allied Health Professionals in Lancashire by specified organisation as at 31 January 2016  Full-time equivalentAll Specified Organisations2,122Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust381Calderstones Partnership NHS Foundation Trust18East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust502Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust345Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust383NHS East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)0NHS Fylde and Wyre CCG1Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust239University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust253   Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre Provisional NHS HCHS monthly workforce statistics.  Notes: Full time equivalent figures are rounded to the nearest whole number.'0’ denotes more than zero, less than one.Following a public consultation in 2015, categorisation of trusts and staff groups has changed therefore restricting comparability with previous publications. Because of these changes, these statistics are classed as experimental. More details regarding these changes can be found in the outcomes of the consultation document available at the following link. http://www.hscic.gov.uk/hchs The Health and Social Care Information Centre seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data but responsibility for data accuracy lies with the organisations providing the data. Methods are continually being updated to improve data quality. Where changes impact on figures already published, this is assessed but unless it is significant at national level figures are not changed. Impact at detailed or local level is footnoted in relevant analyses.

Pharmacy: Training

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many students in (a) the UK, (b) the North West and (c) Lancashire are studying for a clinical pharmacy diploma.

Ben Gummer: The Department does not hold this information centrally.

Pharmacy: Lancashire

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many students in Lancashire studying a clinical pharmacy diploma are in receipt of a bursary.

Ben Gummer: Students undertaking clinical pharmacy diplomas are not eligible for NHS Bursary funding. Health Education England (HEE), North West, provides a range of education support primarily focused around the required pre-registration year through the provision of salary support for hospital based trainees. HEE (North West) also supports access to funded continuing professional development for clinical pharmacists. The clinical pharmacy diploma, which is not a requirement in order to practice independently, is not funded in the North West by HEE in terms of either fees or bursaries.

Social Workers: Lancashire

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many social workers are working in Lancashire.

Alistair Burt: This information is not collected centrally. Skills for Care, the partner in the sector skills council for social care, in England, collects information on the number social worker jobs in England. Skills for Care estimates shows that there were a total of 390 social worker jobs in Lancashire in local authorities and the independent sector as at September 2015.

London Ambulance Service: Paramedical Staff

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many paramedics were employed by the London Ambulance Service in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison: London Ambulance Service currently has a national and international campaign to recruit additional paramedics which seeks to address the fall in staffing over recent years.The table below shows the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) numbers of ambulance paramedics at London Ambulance Service. This information is sourced from HSCIC Monthly Workforce Statistics, January 2016.DateSeptember 2011September 2012September 2013September 2014September 2015Sum of Total FTE1,8711,8851,8921,7781,762

Pharmacy

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of pharmacies in the UK in each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt: The information requested is provided in the following table. Number of registered pharmacies in Great Britain, both National Health Service and private, for each of the last 10 yearsAs at 31 December 200612,545200712,844200812,958200913,2242010 (as at 31 October)13,465As at 31 March 201113,500201213,850201314,186201414,306201514,367201614,397Source: For the years 2006 to 2009 the data is taken from archived records of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. From 2010 to 2016 the information has been provided by the General Pharmaceutical Council. Number of registered pharmacies in Northern Ireland, both NHS and private, for each of the last 10 years (as at 31 May)2006548200753020085382009539201054220115432012548201354820145492015552Source: Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland